Draft #3 cover letter

Here, I focused on applying peer and teacher feedback. Improving the essay at this point
essentially boiled down to making my line of reasoning more cohesive by taking the
conversation with the reader slower — defining terms, adding sentences to separate the
ideas so that they remain distinct from one another, reorganizing the paragraph structure.
Reese suggested that I incorporate topic sentences to better summarize the following
paragraph so as to create a more organized flow of ideas and that I also avoid repetition by
giving distinct purposes to each sentence within a paragraph, which was advice that I
gladly applied that I feel makes my piece so much more digestible.

Draft #3

The Liminal Growth Opportunity of Travel and How it Has Become Unapparently
Accessible:

Extended travel in youth populations has dramatically gained popularity as new

generations look abroad to gain perspective on their own developing identities. The
unfamiliarity associated with such travel poses philosophical and psychological questions
that help to guide young adults towards new paths of self-discovery without necessarily
creating cause for the commonly perpetuated concerns of lack of stability, viability, or a
sense of belonging. The liminal spaces made available by the unfamiliarity of extended
travel can deeply and richly impact the development of a traveler’s sense of self, and a sort
of lifestyle that advocates for this kind of space to grow is much more attainable than it
may seem.

Long-term travel consists of unique developmental contributions to the growth of young

travelers as they are cast into various situations of wonder and discomfort. According to
academic reviewer Emily Kearns, travel functions as an ego-constructive process that
allows travelers to reestablish the Self by offering a theoretical framework to explore
“liminal spaces” — a term that refers to a non-physical mental and transformative space
that is associated with the development of new perspectives. The loss of convention
provided by such extended excursions prompts the exploration of completely new settings,
both mentally and physically. These mental frameworks for change are indicative of new
“environments” for the mind and it is fitting that physical relocation in a literal sense can
have such a profound ability to assist in the reorganization of the mindscape as it directly
prompts the mind to react in new ways as it provides unfamiliar stimuli. Kearns
emphasizes how it is valuable to examine tourism, pilgrimages, and “ritual literatures” as
mediums of transformation due to their ability to offer a certain unique liminal headspace
that is stimulative of growth due to new and dynamic stimuli.
Analyzing a series of experiments conducted using in-depth interviews with British tourists
before and after their “long-haul” travel experiences seeking to question the effects of
tourism on conceptions of identity, self, and personhood, Luke Desforges found it
commonly articulated that long-haul travel was closely associated with the questioning of
these tourists’ identities and lifestyles. The mental space provided by a change of pace in
combination with prominent questions that seek to reanalyze one’s lifestyle and ego
provide crucial factors for the reassessment of identity in an individual, and it is because of
this breaking down of convention and mental boundaries that catalyzes the stimulation of
identity development.

Beyond stimulus for the reassessment of what is already there, Vered Amit theorizes that
newfound capacities for change as a whole are initially discovered through the transition
provided to young travelers. Because travelers are constantly challenged to confront and
overcome uncertainties, their capacity for change is enhanced as they explore the
transitional space that is brought on by their lifestyle’s unpredictability. She emphasizes
that, historically, the notion of transition has always accompanied any kind of formative life
crisis events such as birth, ‘social puberty,’ marriage, parenthood, death, etc., and that the
passage within a liminal or transitional period between the separation of one state to
another has especially resonated in anthropological literature surrounding tourism.
Stemming from this initial literature, both liminality and transition became a sort of
identity and brand for the concept of travel and would continue to affect how it was
perceived; Amit argues that this deeply contributed to the conceptual change toward
paradigms of exploring liminality as a core identifying aspect of tourism. This identity of
tourism as a liminal space has profoundly influenced its function as the industry developed
and Amit argues that the inherently transitional nature of tourism, influenced by the
prominence of liminality in the literature that was foundational to the idea of tourism, can
provoke transitional periods in travelers as they undergo intrinsic and “ongoing
oscillation[s] between structure and anti-structure”. As youth populations find themselves
in the developmental liminal spaces procured by travel, they will not only use the
opportunity brought by the redesigned mental landscape to reorganize what currently
exists, but also expand their capacities for change entirely.

Extended travel as a vehicle for self-discovery through the liminal spaces and transitional
periods that are inherent to such discomfort has been gaining popularity as “lifestyle
migration” (as referred to by lifestyle sociologists Michaela Benson and Karen O'Reilly) as
an evermore prominent option to seek something new. Lifestyle migration describes
migration as a means of seeking a more fulfilling way of life elsewhere, and the
phenomenon is quickly spreading but is inherently disparate, and little can be said with
confidence about the economic, sociological, and cultural impacts that the trend can have
by any end of the migratory chain. The trend has been gaining momentum as modern
globalization continues to provide more flexible opportunities as living standards in
traditional environments are on the rise. Benson & O’Reilly comment that common
motivations for lifestyle migration tie closely to those often discussed with more temporary
travel such as the ideology of escape and the continued development of identity. As
incentives to seek new environments and the lifestyles that accompany them increase,
whether that be by default environments becoming less desirable or opportunities to
relocate becoming more accessible across a broader range of economic privilege, the
phenomenon of lifestyle migration as a means of solving a problem will continue to grow
and diversify.

In his book, I Don’t Want to Grow Up: Life Liberty, and Happiness Without a Career, Author
Scott Stillman discusses how much of the yearning for change brought by a change in
lifestyle can be satisfied through a reprioritization of the way one lives. Much like how
lifestyle migration seeks to use travel as a vehicle for seeking a more fulfilling life
elsewhere, Stillman broadens up the conversation to discuss a change of lifestyle according
to following one's passion. He writes “Life is about priorities — you must decide what’s
truly important and what’s not. If your passion is photography, you’re going to need good
cameras and lenses. If you’re a surfer, you’re going to need good surfboards and wetsuits.
When these items wear out, you’re going to need replacements. This is non-negotiable. /
Many people won’t think twice about upgrading an appliance, but they will put off a new
piece of gear for years. Prioritizing lifestyle means putting off the appliance” (Stillman 99).
Throughout the work, Stillman provides anecdotes about how he was able to better live for
what he is passionate about rather than for preconceived lifestyle norms, or as he refers to
it, not growing up. Stillman himself admits to being a lifestyle migrator, but he is also a
beacon, a messenger, an encouragement for the movement in prioritizing this way of life. In
an example of Stillman’s own reprioritization of his life, he discusses how he moved to
Colorado to be closer to the outdoors because he and his wife had no occupational
requirement to work at any specific location and how they opted for a more secluded home
outside of the city and nearer to various hikes than a typical suburban neighborhood with
more transportational convenience. It is here that the barriers between an aspiring traveler
and their desired lifestyle are flipped and blurred, and as more people seek to live a life
beyond convention, those people will discover much more ease in their transition through
a systemic reprioritization of their way of life.

In Amit’s ‘Before I Settle Down’: Youth Travel and Enduring Life Course Paradigms, she
discusses how the popularization and normalization of youth travel begs the question of
redefining our concept of adulthood due to the shift away from conventional “adult” traits
of these travelers’ lifestyles. She argues that such travel can demand a restructuring of our
conception of adulthood due to many of its implications, one being the increased societal
emphasis on individuality that it poses. When someone is able to become their own guide
for their lifestyle, as is typically true in some fashion in youth travel, they move away from
traditional structures offered by consistent and stable occupations and locations that offer
conformative norms and dampen one’s emphasis on a kind of individuality that would
appear when isolated from these influences. She discusses how shying away from a series
of “fixed stages and roles” highlights a diversity and fragmentation of paths that do not
necessarily fall into our typical perceptions of “adulthood.” On the other side of the coin,
she discusses the increasing barrier to entry into more conventional paths such as the
rising competitiveness of college admissions and job landscapes to even achieve these
normalized paths. To me, this increased weight of even a typical lifestyle again brings up
Stillman’s question of prioritization — what about these conventional paths matter?

Travel is such a rich and valuable experience for developing a person’s sense of self
because it can offer the liminality to grow away from norms that challenge our normalized,
consistent everyday environments. With the addition of new stimuli brought on by
unfamiliar environments, the capacity of travelers for growth and the development of the
self as they broaden their perspectives and tune into new ways of thinking that may not
have been apparent or even possible before. Traveling reveals itself to be much more
plausible as we step away from conventional ways of thinking about topics such as lifestyle
and adulthood and instead begin to focus on reevaluating priorities to create an
individualized most desirable way of living. As restrictive norms and ways of thinking are
rationalized away, what is left is the pure drive to create the opportunities that have always
seemed unattainable — this is where the endless possibilities to chase your dreams are,
whatever they may be or wherever they may lead you.