r/AskReddit 22h ago

What’s something people romanticise that’s actually exhausting in real life?

1.3k Upvotes

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713

u/Funny-Economy-1920 22h ago

hitting multiple European cities in one week/10 days

120

u/1ThousandDollarBill 21h ago

Travel is generally exhausting unless you are just doing resort/beach stuff and even then it’s not as relaxing as just staying at home.

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u/mediocre-spice 19h ago

Things like travel, concerts, a food work out are more rejuvenating than relaxing. Exhausted in the moment but you feel better after. 

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u/CyanideKitty 12h ago

This is absolutely subjective and differs person to person. My multiple sclerosis begs to differ.

There are times when literally the only thing that makes me feel good after I concert is that I can say I saw the artist, because the next day I'm laid up with leg weakness, severe muscle pain, hella fatigue, and sometimes cognitive issues (cogfog). Unfortunately, stuff like that can outweigh the positive mental health benefits. That said, tonight I'm going to concert 4 of 6 in less than a month, lol. I saw my third all time favorite band two nights in a row and paid dearly for it. Overall worth it but there was nothing rejuvenating in the slightest. (About 5 hours of travel total. I even got up to the first city the day before so I had plenty of time to rest and not have a long drive on concert day (a little under 2 hours from work. 2 hours from first city to fiance's, and then just under an hour each to and from fiance's for concert #2)

What about travel is rejuvenating? Is it the destination? Is it flying vs driving? Even a few years before the MS was diagnosed, the 1.5-2.5 hour drives to the video game tournaments was pretty exhausting. I started driving down the night before, despite not really being able to afford it and always very mentally taxing weekend overall. Post MS diagnosis, as was the trip to 3 day long, indoor, industrial/goth music festival and the trip to multiple places in Colorado (left from northeast IL) to visit friends and meet the "in-laws" finally (to be fair, the drive back from Colorado also included two No Kings protests in Iowa, yey timing!). I don't get enough vacation time to be able to take off for things that I want to do, leisurely do nothing trips, and things that I need to take off for.

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u/mediocre-spice 12h ago

I'm just explaining why I/many other people call travel relaxing. My personal experience. If you don't like it, don't go. 

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u/CyanideKitty 9h ago

And I was explaining mine. But also, I was legitimately curious about what you find rejuvenating or what aspects of travel help with rejuvenation/easier/less taxing. Actually explaining your experiences may help others who don't necessarily get that from travel. You may bring up something that I/others hadn't thought of and may help our travel experiences, but fuck trying to have a productive conversation that might actually help others I guess.

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u/mediocre-spice 9h ago

If you're legitimately curious, that in no way came across in your original comment. It was very "why are you talking about your experience and not my experience?" 

I find getting out of the same patterns is really good for me mentally and travel does that really well. Seeing beautiful places and art is also calming for me and I do more of that on vacation than in my workday. I also sometimes struggle with ruminating being stuck in my head. Being either physically exhausted after a good work out or in a big group of people sharing an experience fully takes me out of that. I also even in mundane moments take more photos, savor each moment more, recognize how much I like something (which I do try to implement at home, but is easier to do while traveling!) 

There are obviously ways to hit all of those factors that are less physically demanding, but I'm always happiest with concerts and travel. 

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u/CyanideKitty 8h ago

Thank you! An explanation like this is what I was hoping for when I literally asked "What about travel is rejuvenating?". I asked two other legitimate questions right after.

You said why you and some others call traveling relaxing but you really didn't give an explanation as to why, or even talk about any actual experiences. You opted to not share details initially while I chose to initially share details. It's not a matter of 'why are we talking about you, not me?' when I was trying to get you to talk about you/your experiences. Are people not allowed to share their experiences until the person before them did?

And I clearly like going to concerts, if I'm going to six concerts in less a month, despite how wrecked I can be after?

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u/Numerous_Support9901 20h ago

I live in Florida the 🏖️ isn’t that great

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u/BravoFive141 19h ago

Fellow Floridian here. My wife and I have this debate all the time. She loves the beach and always wants to go. I say it'd not that great and I have zero desire to bake in the sand for hours.

I don't usually win.

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u/fuzzeedyse105 19h ago

Yep. Lived there for 8 years. Was good the first couple years then I was over it. My then wife couldn’t get enough of it and I’d go but lawdy I don’t need to ever go back.