By A soothing carousel; you visit the show often and it goes on as long as the fare is paid. You post your pictures #BlackTravel; you prove you know how to have a good time….
Black Travel
Oh what a feeling. In a foreign land where we stand out and bystanders marvel at our skin tone! #BlackTravel.
Oh the carousel that is #BlackTravel. From one destination to another; as long as we insert coins the ride goes on and on.
I just finished my latest trip with a group of 12! I wish a nigga would tell me thats not #BlackTravel at its finest!
Now im back home plotting my next escapade. Gotta get more storage for the iPhone, gotta do more bicep curls…. ooohhh I should braid my hair on these niggas!!! All in the name of #BlackTravel.
If it aint about #BlackTravel I DON’T WANT TO HEAR IT! What about #BlackPain? Well #BlackPain don’t look so good on my timeline so nahhhhh, no sympathy……
See I’m a single parent defying the odds, or maybe I’m a heartbroken individual getting over my ex. Or better yet, I’m a graduate student, 1st in my family with multiple degrees and student loan debt. If I just add a lil #BlackTravel in the pot, my #BlackPain won’t taste as bad.
Traveling is also a privilege many do not get the chance to experience due to their days on earth being cut short or due to excruciating life circumstances. So much pain in life is endured and masked, you start to use travel as a coping mechanism. We run from our #BlackPain to experience new things, but even a remodeled car will run the same if everything is brand new besides the engine.
This isn’t a plea for you to stop traveling; just a reminder to address the root cause of your pain. We have too many scenarios where someone is dealing with so much on the inside and suddenly can’t take it anymore. The result tends to be a forgettable action. I know a gentle man who caved a hole in his wall because of pent up frustration and #BlackPain. “Him is me” as they say on social media lol. I know another man who put hands on a woman because of his #BlackPain. “Him is not me” but I know what it feels like to irrationally act out due to internal issues. I also know another man who wanted to take his life due to #BlackPain. Collectively we have taken numerous trips together, but not once did we ever discuss our #BlackPain.
Keep on exploring the world, just make sure to carve out time and explore your internal world as well!
Long Live Tobe 
I have been reading a lot on travel stories and travelogues generally and one thing all of them have in common is that 2/3 of the times, these people embark on a journey as an antidote to what they are going through on the inside. The desire to visit unfamiliar places in the bid to forget familiar pains but one thing I have also picked out from all of these stories of sojourner is that the pain never leaves, it dwells within themselves and reflects on how they relate with the places they find themselves in as a result of the journey. Yet, after so many years of “moving”, the return to where they left and still realize that the pain still lingers. Traveling could be therapeutic but it is only so when we bring our pains along with it.
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Very true!
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