After about a year and a half of moving around the world and living out of a suitcase, I’m about ready to give up. A large part of me can’t wait until I graduate, only so that I can stay put for a little while.

These complaints, of course, make me feel like an over-privileged millennial whose life is one big vacation. Posting a photo to commemorate my spring or fall break always leads to questions about whether or not I actually study, how is it that I get to travel so much, etc. unto infinity. Never mind the fact that some people still describe me as the chick who studies in Abu Dubai; I’ve gotten so used to shuffling myself around that sometimes, even I don’t know where I’m actually studying. And to think that I have yet to be blessed with a class that gets a trip abroad.

The transitory nature of this university has led many of us to treat traveling as an everyday commodity. Once our stipend cards get refilled, people immediately start shopping for plane tickets in the same way that many other students would shop for groceries. I have abused this system myself time and time again, and I am beyond grateful for the opportunity to be a part of it. I’m grateful for traveling, but I’m also tired: really, really, really tired. I finally got a single room this semester, a real place of my own. In a few weeks I’ll have to give it up.

The privilege of travel lies in the privilege of escape, the freedom to create your own geographical boundaries. But at what point do you stop running? Can these boundaries extend infinitely, or do they end up snapping on the way?

Getting used to travel requires a certain grit. You get used to the impermanence of things. You become intimate with the idea that everything in your life is an acquaintance. A thrilling perspective, of course, because the upshot to this uncertainty is that there is always a new adventure. In a generation that seeks instant gratification, and when Sia can want for cheap thrills and actually be able to find them globally, it makes sense that we’re chasing the next thing. The question is, though, what if you were never a good runner to begin with?

This sense of freedom that many of us exercise as students of this university ends up engulfing us. Knowing that the next unknown is an online purchase away leaves you open, leaves you vulnerable, to the many many choices that are actually out there. We quickly realize, of course, that these choices will always remain out of reach, so we compromise. We go to country X because we’ve never been to continent Y, and avoid city Z because it looks too much like city A which we’ve already been to. We escape. Traveling is often seen as a brave step, a leap into the vast unknown. But the ability to make the leap means that we can, just as quickly, jump back. Yes to new experiences, yes to new ways of life but yes with the condition that we can quit at any time.

Had I written this article last year, I would have written a different article. Being forced to stay home this summer because of internship funding was a blessing in disguise, because I learned to fall in love with my city. It’s much harder to stay put. We travel because we know that we can leave at any time. This is the privilege of freedom that we have now.