I’d managed to stay off the Tiktok trend for some time before caving in a couple of months ago. A good friend and I share funny ones back and forth, so on one hand it has become a source of laughter and humor for me.

On the other hand, there is a side of Tiktok I wish to never cross.

I was scrolling mindlessly the other day, when I came across a rather ignorant Tok. The video was of a rather thin, perhaps “pretty” by societal standards girl, wearing sunglasses and dressed in a bikini. “Everyone is having their European summer,” her caption read. “So guess who also bought tickets to go to Europe?”

The key word here is “everyone.” I wondered who she considered her version of “everyone” was.

Summers in Europe are not new. It’s peak tourist season, but to say you think “everyone” is going there was, to me, a little ignorant.

To go to Europe on a whim, you need money. Funds. For most working class people, you need to take time off. PTO, if you’re granted it at all. There are quite a few elements at play whenever a trip to Europe is afoot. It’s not that simple.

Unless you’re an influencer, who seemingly have all the time and flexibility in the world to play. To do something simply because they, in their own little world, think everyone else is doing it.

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Walden by Henry David Thoreau is a classic that has stood the test of time. Thoreau’s principles are more relevant and needed in this present day more than ever. Whenever faced with the pull of materialism, to be a follower in a herd of fake sheep, I think back to Walden. Even Thoreau, in a period so long ago, felt that uncomfortable pull.

There are plenty of people in this world who follow. Who surround themselves with luxury brands they cannot afford because they think it makes them look cool, wealthy, and elevated when in reality, their possessions do nothing but make them a smoking gun. Waving a bright red flag telling the world, “Look at me! I want attention. I want to be somebody I’m not.”

Yet, these people are not happy. They remain insecure, lost, falling into a deep, pitiful hole. Insecurity is one of the biggest, obvious weaknesses a person can have. To free yourself from it, is perhaps one of the smartest, largest feats a human can ever overcome.

Travel because you want to do it for yourself. Because you want to see how other people live, to learn from them, to make a memory that will rest happily in a small corner of your mind.

Living deliberately and sucking the marrow out of life doesn’t equate to FOMO and doing things because you think you’ll never have the chance to again. It means enjoying the moment, being grateful for the opportunity, and making the most of being around the people you love.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms…

Henry David Thoreau