[비즈한국] There are days when life feels heavy. At a traffic light on the way to work, in an empty office after a meeting, or on the way home after barely pushing through an unfulfilling day. That’s when the thought suddenly occurs: I want to go on a trip.
However, most of us cannot leave. We lack the time, money, and courage. So, we keep hiding behind the word "someday." Lee Hee-jin's book, 'Still, I Want to Travel,' is the record of someone who turned that "someday" into "now."
This is not a "cliché" story about suddenly quitting a job, dropping everything, and taking off. As a corporate employee for 23 years, the author was neither an adventurer, an influencer, nor a YouTuber. She simply set off whenever she had a chance to pick herself back up after being burned out. In that way, she walked through 300 cities. Alone. Slowly. Deeply.
This is not an informative or vivid travel guide covering various parts of the world, either. The landscapes of Türkiye, the alleys of Italy, and the waves of Portugal are merely a stage. The focus is always on "me." "Slow down and enjoy life. If you go too fast, you miss more than just the scenery." This sentence, encountered in one of her travel destinations, quietly dictates the direction of the entire book.
To restore balance in her life, the author walked, observed, and sometimes stopped. For her, traveling was not about proof-shot photos, but about reflection. She gradually reclaimed herself in Monaco, where she vowed not to envy others' lives; in an alleyway in Spain, where she wanted to fall to her knees and weep; and during an evening in Croatia, where she sat at an unfamiliar table and quietly conversed with herself.
'Still, I Want to Travel' is the record of that long journey. It is a log of recovery, documenting how someone who lived as an ordinary office worker healed the cracks in her life through travel. The sceneries and emotions she encountered while walking through 300 cities around the world go beyond a simple travel essay.
Composed of five chapters, the book follows the themes of 'happiness,' 'pain,' 'loss,' 'relationships,' and 'leaving.' From Istanbul, Türkiye, to Santorini, Greece, the author does not just see these cities; she discovers herself within them. Amidst a grueling professional life, she has used travel as a tool for recovery rather than escape.
What is particularly impressive is her way of traveling. She does not consume a city by brushing past it; rather, she encounters her true self at the pace of staying, walking, and observing. For the author, travel was a discipline to live her daily life more firmly and a method to finally find herself in a strange alleyway.
This book is a quiet consolation and an invitation to everyone exhausted by life, not just those who love to travel. If you still have even a flicker of that desire to travel, this is definitely the book for you.