a rant

Why do young women want to travel so much?

Answer: We want to get married and have children.

Now, calm down, I realize you are probably saying "What the heck? What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?" I know, I sound crazy, but stop interjecting your thoughts and let me continue.

We travel and want to travel because we've been doing the same thing for years, which is a general conglomeration of:

Living with parents

Living with friends

Getting involved in a church/college group/house church

Doing local activities

Looking for work and working

Reading/arting/cooking/making & listening to music

Spending excess time on facebook

Pursuing higher and higher education

Well, friends, you can only go so long into these when you wonder when that first bit is going to come at you: Marriage. Love... and all that wonderful fairytale bliss of happily ever after.

Don't get me wrong, an education is never wasted, and getting deep into a church and with friends and family is totally awesome. The issue comes when you've been brought up and continuously presented with the notion that you should be married and raise babies -- and it's not happening. You have done your utmost to pursue the Lord and make the right choices and become a effective and essential leader for our future generations. But there's still that one small catch: Husband. Followed by the endlessly agonizing questions of: where? and when?

This, my friends, is one of the reasons why the young women of our generation pursue international travel and missions. It comes down to: well, I'm still single, so what else is there? Not to say that you can't travel once you are married, because, lets face it: husband = personal security guard (and a few other bonuses thrown in there that I won't get into for the sake of time). The idea, I suppose, is that we want to build up our personal resume. The world is there for the taking, and why not? Being young and single, there's nothing stopping (save finances... but that's so overrated, right?)

So... what is leading all these young women to travel beside the general interest and sense of adventuring needing to be sated? Honestly, I am of the belief that it is a lack of mature young men who are unafraid to take the risk of (dare I even say it?) the commitment of a relationship.

I know numerous awesome christian young men. However, the thing I come across more times than not are what I like to call the: overly-flirtatious-yet-non-committal-Jesus-loving-boy. Translation: guys in the church that will flirt with you incessantly but not actually ask you out. Some even go so far as to call you "sister" because you are, after all, a "sister in Christ."

This. Could. Not. Possibly. Frustrate. Us. More.

Some young women might totally go with it. Others of us just get bitter and believe that you use it as an excuse to flirt with us, but not have to feel awkward for liking to hang out with us all the time -- and go on coffee dates one-on-one.

If you want to go out. Go out! Call it a date. Start a relationship. Sure it might be awkward at first, but it's better than the slow burn of bitterness against society as a whole. Such insecurities we have. Why are we so afraid of the words: "date," "dating," and "relationship" anyway? 

Oh, and that age-old excuse of "not dating" because you "want to pursue the Lord more" thing? I believe that is... not even what God wants. We're relational beings. God said it was not good for man to be alone. Why then must we pull ourselves from relationships for wanting to know God more? I say go with the challenge. Keep up with your 29 college classes and activities and work and church group, and seek God the whole time, but why not be in a relationship too? I'm not saying to use the other as a crutch or a means to your relationship with God, but as a help. If someone was man enough to want to date you, why are you backing out now? It has taken them so long to even get to that point, and you shut them down? You fool, you will be the next young woman to book a flight to Europe for the summer.

We're not young forever. Prov 31 states so clearly that "beauty is passing" you still waiting for that right moment? Keep waiting... it only gets worse from here.

I believe that people in our culture today emphasize the getting of a a career before settling down. Not to be a complete Debbie Downer, but in our economy today, it's not looking too promising that we'll be married before we're 80 -- if we even live that long (2012 anyone? kidding... we're actually past that date because we don't follow the same calendar, but that's another story that continues about the polar bears killing us off after Africa takes over the world, and before the ants become strong enough to make us their slaves)....umm.... anyway! If our lives had to be completely set up and perfect before we looked into relationships, would we ever get there... or would they simply get in our way of that perfect life we spent so long being single setting up?

Three rabbit trails later...

In my opinion young women often suffer from wanderlust because, lacking any sort of prospects remotely related to a potential future husband, they have no reason not to.

And who knows, you might meet that Jesus-loving young man who is man enough to flirt with you and actually ask you out and call it a date.... at least, that's one of the points of traveling, right?

Personal Sub Script: I hate, hate, hate facebook chat.
If you are going to ask someone out. Go all out. Do it in person. Be creative or ingenuitive (all you crafty hipster engineering majors). Avoid the facebook chat, messaging, emails (even though that is soo 1999), texts, and skype calls.