I have a problem. Well, it’s not really a problem. Ok, it’s a bit of a problem. The thing is, I’ve been travelling for a while. But even when I started travelling, the problem raised its ugly head. Allow me to explain.
I was in Australia, with my travelling buddy at the time. We had spent a few weeks on the road. We had seen some pretty amazing things. We were delighted with ourselves, and wanted to share how happy we were with our trip so far with each other.
Our conversations would therefore be peppered with happy adjectives, along the lines of “that tree was amazing!” or “did you see that 90 mile beach? Amazing!”.
After a few weeks of this, we started to get a bit concerned. What if the “amazing” tag wore off? How would we be able to differentiate between say, Uluru (amazing) and an experience camping under the stars in the outback, with no people within at least 100km of us (also amazing). What if amazing just became, well, the norm?
It was clearly time for a system to be put into place, a system with rules. Rules we would have to stick to. Some form of classification system that would allow us to differentiate the every day amazing from the truly amazing amazing. And so was the awesomometer born.
We decided that a scale was necessary. At the bottom of the scale was amazing. A lot of Australia is amazing, and so a lot of stuff fell into this category. This is by no means a bad category. Just because it happens to be at the bottom of the scale does not mean it fails to pass muster. This is a scale that starts at amazing, and can only go up.
After amazing came awesome. Awesome had to be something really quite special. Special beyond amazing. To be awesome, somewhere had to not only be a staggeringly awesome place, but to provide some sort of experience that we were left in awe by. I know, this sounds tricky. Luckily, Australia provided awesome in spades too.
The final category (I know what you are thinking, a three tier scale? That is barely enough! We realised this later too, and added descriptors such as “really amazing” or “quite awesome” as mini markers to keep ourselves on the straight and narrow) was Legendary. (We had possible watched too much of a certain TV series at this point).
Legendary required an experience to be entirely mind blowing. A once in a lifetime experience, never to be forgotten. Something that burnt itself indelibly into the mind. I classified one experience as legendary on the entire trip, (although the whole trip could be classed as legendary) and that involved a week long outback hippie festival, mud, and fairly liberal doses of nudity..
So a scale was born. Generally I was happy. But of late, I have started to feel that perhaps it isn’t the right approach. I may get a bit philosophical here. Bear with me.
The thing is, judging things against other things is a practice that is entirely common. Some people create top ten lists of say, their favourite cities in the world. Others become vexed that not everything we see can be truly awesome, and that as writers we must be sparing with our words. Praise should be doled out carefully, to places and experiences that are truly worthy.
And I’m not so good at that I am starting to realise. I find myself genuinely amazed and thrilled by so many of the things I see, that I must use words that match my delight. I urge you to do the same. Do not be afraid to share your enthusiasm for your experiences. Don’t worry if the tenth waterfall you see happens to be the tenth amazing waterfall, with nine other amazing waterfalls right behind it. Be delighted at the new and fresh thrill of every discovery.
Every waterfall, place you visit and experience you have is its own unique object, unique to itself, incomparable to anything else, and unique to you and how you experience it.
It can sometimes be a challenge to find the words to get that out, but I’m sure you’ll rise to that challenge. And if words don’t do, I find photographs to be a handy substitute. Thanks for reading.
Laurence says
Thanks Connie, it’s comments like this that make it all seem worth it!
Becoming desensitised to the wonder around us is a definite problem when
travelling long term – and if we are no longer travelling with wonder
then we should ask ourselves why we are doing it 🙂
Laurence says
It’s awesome to be ok with this! I think that was what I was trying to
get to 😉
Laurence says
It’s ok, I was able to feel fairly comfortable about the whole thing.
Fear not!
As for the sponsoring lark, it’s a way to generate a rather moderate bit
of cash (don’t crack open the champagne just yet). Hopefully it’s not
too intrusive or bothersome. The advertisers don’t have any say over the
content I publish, all they get is a bit of text and a link at the end
of the post. Feedback as to this is welcome – obviously an income from
the blog would be great but I’d rather it not be to the detriment of you
guys 🙂
Laurence says
Hey Suzy, thanks for stopping by! This was the overall idea of the post,
so I’m happy it worked 🙂
Laurence says
Lol Ben, that’s a splendid idea. The word great was largely taken out of
my dictionary as I over-used it in my early twenties to describe things.
Luckily, the English language has no shortage of adjectives for the
wonderful 🙂
Laurence says
That’s it Rease! Everything can be amazing, every new experience can be
measured against itself and nothing else 🙂
Laurence says
As long as it worked, that’s the important thing 🙂
Connie Hum says
I found your post completely insightful. I traveled in Asia for all of 2010 and looking back on all my photos, I notice that towards the beginning of my trip, I was taking photographs of EVERYTHING. Later on in the year, I’m taking about half the amount even though I’m still visiting beautiful, new and interesting places. I think that as humans, we’re just prone to getting desensitized to external stimulation, particularly those we continually come in contact with. After reading your post, I think I’m going to take a stronger initiative in trying to re-sensitize myself to the awe of travel. So what if I’ve already seen the same types temples all over Southeast Asia? They are all still unique and what a challenge it will be to try to find out what makes them special! Thanks for posting something to help me change my travel attitude!
Amanda Williams says
I’m like you — everything I see while traveling is amazing and beautiful and photo-worthy. But you know what? I’m absolutely okay with this. 🙂
Keep up the amazing awesomeness!
retrotraveller says
Amazing article!
On the last big trip I did I found that after a couple of months of diary writing I kept pausing at the word ‘amazing’ trying to think of another word… I don’t think what I was seeing and experiencing got any more or less amazine – I just got bored with the word.
On my next trip I’ll pack a Thesaurus I think!
Laurence says
Cheers! I had the same problem when I was at Uni – my Dad would ring
every couple of weeks to find out how all was progressing, and I would
invariably say it was “great”. I think he gave up asking me after a
while, as I appeared to have no other word to sum up my experiences. Ten
years on, and great has since been replaced with amazing it seems in my
dictionary…
retrotraveller says
Amazing article!
On the last big trip I did I found that after a couple of months of diary writing I kept pausing at the word ‘amazing’ trying to think of another word… I don’t think what I was seeing and experiencing got any more or less amazine – I just got bored with the word.
On my next trip I’ll pack a Thesaurus I think!
Ben Alcock says
I had a similar problem describing landmarks when travelling around the world with a mate years ago.
We ended up simplifying things to just “Big” or “Good” (or “big AND good” on exceptional occasions) to indicate their visit-worthiness.
Worked for us.
Ben Alcock says
I had a similar problem describing landmarks when travelling around the world with a mate years ago.
We ended up simplifying things to just “Big” or “Good” (or “big AND good” on exceptional occasions) to indicate their visit-worthiness.
Worked for us.
Laurence says
As long as it worked, that’s the important thing 🙂
Ben Alcock says
Great post…it makes me wonder if we need to apply your thinking to many of our existing place names.
Perhaps “Great” isn’t good enough anymore.
“Amazing Barrier Reef” sounds much better. As does “Awesome Great Dividing Range”. And how about the “Legendary Australian Bight?”
Bloody great, I reckon.
Ben Alcock says
Great post…it makes me wonder if we need to apply your thinking to many of our existing place names.
Perhaps “Great” isn’t good enough anymore.
“Amazing Barrier Reef” sounds much better. As does “Awesome Dividing Range”. And how about the “Legendary Australian Bight?”
Bloody great, I reckon.
Laurence says
Lol Ben, that’s a splendid idea. The word great was largely taken out of
my dictionary as I over-used it in my early twenties to describe things.
Luckily, the English language has no shortage of adjectives for the
wonderful 🙂
Rease Kirchner says
So true! It’s hard not to call EVERYTHING amazing. But you’re right, you don’t have to stop using the word, you just have to remember the different types of amazing you experienced.
Laurence says
That’s it Rease! Everything can be amazing, every new experience can be
measured against itself and nothing else 🙂
suzyguese says
Nice way to make me see the “amazement” in all places. I think sometimes after you have seen so many amazing things so to speak, you belittle places to some degree. This a great reminder not to do so.
Laurence says
Hey Suzy, thanks for stopping by! This was the overall idea of the post,
so I’m happy it worked 🙂
Scott Mckenzie says
The thought of you, combined with liberal doses of nudity makes me feel someone uncomfortable – and what’s with the sponsorship lark!!!??!?
srbmckenzie says
The thought of you, combined with liberal doses of nudity makes me feel someone uncomfortable – and what’s with the sponsorship lark!!!??!?
Laurence says
It’s ok, I was able to feel fairly comfortable about the whole thing.
Fear not!
As for the sponsoring lark, it’s a way to generate a rather moderate bit
of cash (don’t crack open the champagne just yet). Hopefully it’s not
too intrusive or bothersome. The advertisers don’t have any say over the
content I publish, all they get is a bit of text and a link at the end
of the post. Feedback as to this is welcome – obviously an income from
the blog would be great but I’d rather it not be to the detriment of you
guys 🙂
Amanda Williams says
I’m like you — everything I see while traveling is amazing and beautiful and photo-worthy. But you know what? I’m absolutely okay with this. 🙂
Keep up the amazing awesomeness!
Laurence says
It’s awesome to be ok with this! I think that was what I was trying to
get to 😉
Connvoyage says
I found your post completely insightful. I traveled in Asia for all of 2010 and looking back on all my photos, I notice that towards the beginning of my trip, I was taking photographs of EVERYTHING. Later on in the year, I’m taking about half the amount even though I’m still visiting beautiful, new and interesting places. I think that as humans, we’re just prone to getting desensitized to external stimulation, particularly those we continually come in contact with. After reading your post, I think I’m going to take a stronger initiative in trying to re-sensitize myself to the awe of travel. So what if I’ve already seen the same types temples all over Southeast Asia? They are all still unique and what a challenge it will be to try to find out what makes them special! Thanks for posting something to help me change my travel attitude!
Laurence says
Thanks Connie, it’s comments like this that make it all seem worth it!
Becoming desensitised to the wonder around us is a definite problem when
travelling long term – and if we are no longer travelling with wonder
then we should ask ourselves why we are doing it 🙂