Where do we go from here?
Both literally and figuratively.
I had so many fun and interesting topics planned for my newsletter this summer, especially as someone who HATES the summer season (more on that later), but now that the United States is throwing rocks from its glass house, I feel like anything I want to say about travel feels stupid and frivolous. Then I have the complete existential crisis of “wait, isn’t that what this administration wants from me? To feel hopeless and miserable and to steal any semblance of joy I can find in my life?” I guess two things can be true.
The fact is, I am so filled with anxiety I can barely do the bare minimum right now. It doesn’t help that I live in the greater Washington, DC area, so I feel like geographically, my family and I have a bullseye placed on us for any sort of retaliatory attack. I’m also a longtime sufferer of summertime seasonal depression (yes, this is a real thing), combined with waves of grief surrounding the death anniversaries of both my Father and Grandfather in May and June (with Father’s Day sitting right in between both dates), your girl has been going THROUGH IT. Real talk, the past five weeks or so have been emotionally hellish, even before the sprinkling of WW3 on top of it all and 100-degree days expected this week. 🥴
Although summer tends to be the season when people travel the most, a few months ago I casually polled my readers to ask them how policies in the U.S. were affecting their travel plans. Mind you, this was BEFORE the ICE raids and Iran attack, but when folks were getting their phones seized by customs and border agents and tariffs were very much will-they or won’t-they. Here’s a bit of what they said, with a bit of my response in the blue bubbles.
The general consensus seems to be that like me, folks are scared. There’s so much financial insecurity which can understandably make travel feel low on the priority list when so many of us are struggling to cover the basics (or trying to pay for a whole damn wedding. hi, it’s me!). We’re also scared of each other. This administration has bred so much cruelty and vitriol in both its domestic and international policies that it’s really hard to imagine where travelers, especially those of marginalized communities will feel safe. I also have to say that the travel industry is not doing a good job at standing up to acknowledge these facts at all.
I just returned from the IPW Conference, a travel conference with the literal tagline of “Bringing the World to America”, that’s produced by the U.S. Travel Association and in my opinion, not a single executive spoke transparently and aggressively about how this administration is negatively affecting our industry. How can people support the idea of bringing the world to America when those same international travelers may be detained at the border for no reason beyond sharing a social media post against genocide?
Then there’s the new travel ban against 19 mostly Middle Eastern and African countries, and 36 more countries including Caribbean nations that are on the TBD list. I’m just so tired of this toe the line attitude that I’m seeing from travel industry executives, especially because their lack of willingness to take a stand is not preventing cuts to their organizations. Less than two weeks before the conference started, Senator Rafael Cruz (a Cuban born in Canada who goes by Ted in order to snuggle up to whiteness) proposed an $80 million cut to Brand USA, the marketing arm of the U.S. Travel Association. Was this mentioned or addressed at the conference? No. Were there any opportunities throughout the week for all of the gathered domestic and international media to publicly ask questions? Nope! So ya’ll are just gonna stay quiet and still get your jobs snatched anyway? Cool cool cool.
It’s so exhausting.
This collective exhaustion is why I’ve completely changed my travel plans this summer. What I mean by that is that I don’t have any travel plans. I am not taking any work trips, and I’m not going on any personal trips that involve air travel unless they are wedding-prep related. This was a complicated decision, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about for a long time. As someone who has practiced travel as a form of self-care for years, I’ve decided that in this moment, my need for self-care has to come in a different form.
I struggle so much during the dreaded summer months that I created a “2025 Summer Depression Care Plan” to help care for my mental, emotional and physical needs, and one through-line that appeared as I listed out my preferred activities is a need for structure. I know from many years of experience that I feel my best when I have a routine, and for me there is nothing routine about traveling. I may have fun for four or five days pretending to be a resident of a new place, but the hangover of irregular bedtimes, no exercise, weird time zones and an unfamiliar diet lasts for weeks when I get home. Maybe I’m kidding myself with the false sense of control that a routine gives me, but when those in charge seem to want to create as much chaos as possible right now, I’m clinging to whatever sense of stability I can find.
And to be honest, and I know this goes against the brand I’ve created for myself, I want to feel safe. Like I said above, living in the DC area does not feel safe (I’m sure this case can be made for all of the U.S. right now), so the least I can do is create a life for myself where I feel safe within my own body. This looks like eating nutritiously, growing my garden, yoga and meditation, spending time with my family, going to bed and waking up at the same time every day and doing my best at my job. I’m lucky that I’ve traveled so much leading up to this point that I can continue to provide Black travel guides and share travel expertise with you amazing readers, but will I be out and about exploring new places this summer? Nah.
I thank you all for letting me create a space where I can be brutally honest with you, but I hope that my plans for myself do not affect whatever travel plans you have this summer. I still believe that travelers, especially Black travelers, should explore the world and this country and take part in the joy that is our God-given right. I pray that you all take music-filled road trips, sip frozen drinks and get bronzed along a coastline somewhere, and take in as many summer festivals and free summer concerts as you can. I will be doing the same! It’s just that I’ll be doing it locally. Please remember that your joy is a form of resistance, whether you’re practicing it away from or close to home.
Has the current state of the world affected your summer travel plans? Where do you plan to travel this summer? If you’re staying home, where’s home? Please let us all know how you will be practicing joy and self-care this summer! I think we all need the inspiration 😊
I’m pretty much only traveling to follow a band these days. In the course of that travel, I get to see little bits of a destination - depends how much money and free time I can spend. But one of the beautiful things about traveling this way is that I’m traveling with a ton of friends - even if we’re not all sharing accommodations, eating every meal together, and doing all of the same things outside the shows. There’s a real community and it feels safe(r) to travel this way, knowing I have a bunch of friends I could call on if needed. I never really even thought about that aspect, though, until I read this post. Also, several members of the band regularly speak about what’s going on in the world, including from the stage, so it’s not pure escapism (which would feel irresponsible) but there is catharsis and also encouragement to build a better world.
We live in England and my husband attended an international conference in his professional field in Honolulu last month. Already he was noticing how many people were absent due to visa fears and restrictions. Holding the meeting on a different continent next year won’t help because many more will fear being denied re-entry to the US. The effect this must be having on the academic scientific community is huge.
On a personal note, I wouldn’t visit the US right now on principle. Even as a white European with no obviously extreme political views, I’d feel unsafe. Borders freak me out at the best of times.