Traveling as a Philosophy of Life (from Lonely Planet Thorntree

"After a few years of 'office life', I have ascertained that money, career, materialism and consumerism add nothing to my life. I quit my job in Central London, temporarily retreated in my home country, Italy (where I am now), and pondered on how to find meaning in life.

Here's what I came up with. The more I think about it, the more it makes sense to try and experience as much as possible of this planet. New people, new places, new experiences: isn't this the only way to never stop to grow up and better yourself?
Therefore a meaningful life seems to be traveling as a philosophy of life, for me.

I'm not talking about the consumeristic version of traveling, which I consider an aberration. I am not interested in hotel rooms with a Jacuzzi, in taking the same pictures that millions take, in collecting stamps on my passport at any cost.
I am talking about roaming the planet, opening up to the world unconditionally, breaking free from from all the terrors that make you live in fear (mortgage, pension, nicer cars, bigger houses, beating friends at the insane game of who's got more, etc.). I'm talking about working not for money, but for the experience; visiting not for just saying 'I have done that', but 'I have lived that'; planning not the same life, over and over, in the same place, but planning the next step, the next adventure, the next little block to build a more meaningful life.

Don't ask me how to do it. I don't know yet, you don't either.
But if you can relate to the sentiment I tried to describe briefly here, maybe we can talk and do something about it, together. "