Wanderlust. We have used the s**t out of a simple hippy word. Urban Dictionary, the most reliable source on all-things-millennial says that it is "a deep uncontrollable desire to hit the road and travel, by whatever means desired, to explore and enjoy the world." Basically, it's an unprecedented, causeless lure to pack bags and move somewhere to do something with someone that one doesn't yet know.
This idealization of travel, which is never as picture-perfect as it seems on Instagram, turned into a trend, a hashtag, a festival, countless tattoos, and a cliche almost too shameful to pronounce. While everyone's favorite hipsters, which of course would now never admit to starting the movement, "invented" the catchphrase, Baudelaire put it best centuries before they were even born (cue French accent):
But the true travelers are those who go
Only to get away: hearts like balloons
Unballasted, with their own fate aglow,
Who know not why they fly with the monsoons...
Sometimes it's a lifestyle, a weekend getaway, or a trip. But the idea behind the overused noun outlines a path of exploring and understanding the world around and ourselves at all times. It is a carpe diem kind of mentality to use every moment to figure things out, or instead get lost. Many try, many fail and even less admit their failure.
While the movement has been swayed away from its initial ideas by 20-something year olds "backpacking" through swanky hotels and opting for Uber instead of a walk, there are those who justify the term wanderlust and give it credit.
On a social media high, we are now more likely than ever to envision, to plan and to see a lifestyle that we might want without knowing how to work for it. However, there are those wanderlusters, who would probably never identify as such, who use social media to their benefit to inspire others to cancel their Netflix subscription and get their buttocks off the couch. Even if travel is not your your forte, you must see what these three individuals are up to and you might change your mind.
1. Kylie Flavell
I am convinced that she is the smiliest, most positive and energetic individual on social media. The Australian who calls herself a "season traveller," aka wanderluster, left to study in Japan at the tender age of 17 and has never settled until Rome (greatest place on Earth! I don't blame her). She has been an editor, a publisher, a journalist and a cook, working with brands like Lanvin, Prada, Dior, Bulgari, Louis Vuitton, VOGUE, etc. Lately, she has taught herself to film and video-edit and began a one-girl production company recording her experiences. Kylie then co-founded Romeing, an expat magazine, for which she wrote a monthly column A Life Romantic.
My *: Kylie is #goals!
Her Instagram. Snapchat name: kylieflavell
2. Carin Olsson: Paris in Four Months
Everyone loves a good escape story, a story of running away and finding one's self. But Carin's is one for the books. In 2012, she moved to Paris from Stockholm for four months, and then returned back home only to pack her life away back to the French capital. She now lives in Paris, travels a ton, takes photographs, eats fantastic food, and lives da life. As a talented photographer, she works with companies such as Christian Dior, Gucci, Elie Saab and Carolina Herrera, Condé Nast Traveler, and that's only a modest list. Her pastel-hued Instagram and meticulously detailed Snapchat are a sneak peak into the life of a real artist of photography.
My *: Carin's Snapchat is everything! Watch and learn. Follow: carin-olsson.
3. Jamie Beck: AnnStreetStudio
Take the elegance of Uptown NYC and fuse it with French coquetry and you've got Jamie Beck. She didn't run away and she did not build a home in a foreign land, but she is in a serious, committed relationship with New York City. However, once in a while she takes a rendezvous to her favorite lands of wine and champagne. A full-time photographer, along with her husband, she highlights simplicity and sophistication in every shot, while spicing it with a careless vibe.
My *: I wish my Instagram is full of shots like these. But there's only so much you can do with an iPhone camera. Jamie's Snapchat: annstreetstudio, is just as perfect as her shots.
