Traveler or Tourist?

When the word tourist pops into my head I can't help but to think of the stereotypical idea of a man or woman with khaki shorts, socks with sandals, a floral print shirt, burnt nose, and a camera in hand. However, when I think of a traveler I imagine a citizen of the world, trekking through different cities without an agenda and not a care in the world because he or she is on a journey to find a new meaning out of life and experience new cultures, customs, and people. Although these two concepts are without a doubt correlated with one another, I believe that there are subtle differences that set them apart. For example, a tourist might want to stay within the boundaries of what is safe to explore, whereas a traveler might want to see absolutely everything and scatter away from the constraints of being on a tight schedule to go see typical tourist sights.

In the film adaptation of E.M. Forester's novel, A Room with a View (1985), the protagonist is a young English girl named Lucy Honeychurch that travels to Italy as a tourist. With her much older cousin and chaperone, Ms. Charlotte Bartlett, Lucy lives in an Italian pensione in Florence. They are surrounded mostly by other English people and engage in little to none interaction with authentic Italians. The English group does, on one occasion, take a trip to the countryside to see the view, where with exception of the drivers, they are amongst themselves. Lucy does try to take a tour of an old church, where she is accompanied by a rather larger group that resembles those huge tours that companies offer of distinct sites that might seem appealing to a foreigner on vacation. However, Ms. Eleanor Lavish's character, an English novelist, takes the time to get lost in the city streets and doesn't really mind it because she understands the beauty of being in an unknown city with no clear path to roam upon. Other than this, Lucy's trip to Italy can be mainly  as a tour. However, she does take a journey of her own, but  within herself. It is through Italy and falling in love with an unconventional man in an exotic place, that she understands more about herself and her stance in society. When she goes back to her home in England she takes all that she experienced in Italy and applies it in order to redefine her life. 

Lucy started out as a tourist, and ended up as a traveler in the sense that she discovered and experienced things abroad that made her find new sense and meaning out of life. Although she was certainly confused about her time spent in Italy, when she arrives back home, she learns that she can be an independent women, very much capable of producing her own ideas and thoughts among a very strict Edwardian era in England. Of course, her falling in love with George Emerson, a very open-minded man himself, helped her acquire a refreshing perspective on a lot of aspects of her life. 

Personally, I want to be mostly a traveler and a bit of a tourist. Of course I want to see the typical sights: the Eiffel Tower, Thames River, the Parthenon, and the Roman Coliseum, among many others. But, I also want to get lost in the mysteries and wonders of these cities without much care for an agenda that I must follow to a tee. I would very much like to take a year off and simply go wherever I may. The World is too big of a place to stick to routines and schedules. I believe everyone should at least go on a mini journey to find meaning to their lives and acquire different perspectives that would ultimately open their minds about the idea that the World is a much bigger place than the originally thought.