Booked, Busy, and Broke: The Millennial Summer Dilemma

It’s “How Do They Afford This” Season

It’s that time of year again. My Instagram feed has officially transformed into a live-action rom-com montage. Amalfi Coast selfies. Eiffel Tower proposals. That same damn gelato shot everyone posts in Italy (you know the one, slightly melted, held up against some quaint cobblestone background like it’s the Holy Grail of dairy). And meanwhile, I’m at home, watching it all while eating cereal straight from the box because I’m too tired to find a clean bowl.

Look, I love to travel. It makes me feel human again. It quiets the endless tabs open in my brain. I’m at my best wandering aimlessly through a new city, armed with questionable Wi-Fi and a half-charged phone, chasing the next unexpected moment. But let’s be honest—this whole “European Summer” thing feels more like an aesthetic now than a vacation.

Every summer, the same thought creeps in: “How the hell is everyone affording this?”

When Wanderlust Meets Burnout

I know. I know. Comparison is the thief of joy and all that. But when you’re scrolling through beautifully curated vacation posts while calculating how many therapy sessions you can afford this month, it’s hard not to spiral.

There’s this unspoken pressure to prove we’re living our best lives—and nothing screams success like a sun-drenched photo from Santorini. In a world where we measure milestones in Instagram likes and number of places you’ve been to, travel has become less about curiosity and more about optics. And I say that as someone who lets their phone eat first and loves an aesthetic photo.

The High Price of Keeping Up

The truth? A lot of us are pushing our financial boundaries just to keep up. Putting flights on credit cards, finding side hustles, rationalizing a wildly out-of-budget trip as a “mental health investment.” I’ve done it. My friends have done it. It’s the millennial mantra: treat yourself... and then panic about it for the next six months.

Travel can be soul-healing. It can expand your mind, help you rediscover joy, and remind you that the world is bigger than your burnout. But it’s not a magic pill. It won’t fix your depression. It won’t resolve your anxiety. It definitely won’t erase the complex trauma you’ve spent years trying to untangle in therapy. (Trust me, I’ve tried.)

And maybe that’s the problem. We’re so desperate to feel better, to feel something, that we put all our hope in experiences we think should change everything. We believe that if we could just sip wine in Tuscany or wander the streets of Prague, our lives would finally make sense. But then the trip ends, the photos are posted, and we come home to the same mental load we tried to outrun. Only now we’re also broke.

So where does that leave us?

Travel Won’t Fix Your Trauma

If you relate to the Messy Millennial—tired, under-rested, possibly over-caffeinated, constantly toggling between ambition and exhaustion—you’ve probably found yourself caught in this tension too. You want to see the world. You want to feel alive. You want to be that version of yourself that exists when you're sitting by a foreign sea, breathing easier, laughing louder. And that version of you is real. But they don’t only exist in Europe.

Sometimes, we confuse escape for expansion.

This is to say, we often mistake avoidance or numbing (escape) for growth or healing (expansion). Both can feel relieving in the moment, but they have very different long-term effects. Think of this in a context outside of travel. Quitting a stressful job could be viewed as self care and investing in yourself. Then again, the  job could have been stressful because you didn’t know how to set boundaries or address conflict. Instead of learning those lessons, you’ve now eluded an important life skill that would help you long term.

Travel is beautiful, but it’s not the only metric for a good life and certainly not the only vessel for growth. Maybe this summer, your adventure looks less like a passport stamp and more like finally setting boundaries with your toxic boss. Maybe it's reconnecting with family you haven’t seen in a while, or just taking a break from the pressure to do more. Maybe it’s finding joy in your own city, or giving yourself permission to rest, or choosing not to blow your savings on a vacation you can’t afford just because everyone else is doing it.

Traveling to feel whole at the expense of your savings account just can’t be the vibe!

Worthy Without The Stamp

Here’s my take! I’m not saying don’t go. If you can swing it without spiraling into financial doom, by all means—get your French Riviera on. But if you can’t? That doesn’t make you a failure. It doesn’t mean you’re behind. And it definitely doesn’t mean your life is less full.

Risking your financial freedom doesn’t serve you long term. Traveling for the sake of “keeping up” with your friends loses sight of what traveling is all about. I want the aesthetic gelato picture and the crashing waves boomerang but I also want stability, longevity, and freedom. So I find a balance. Sometimes I lean too far in one direction, but I find with intentionality, I am becoming more accustomed to how it feels when I get it right.

What matters is that you’re still exploring, still challenging yourself, and turning off the comparison reel. Your worth isn’t determined by the number of countries you’ve gone to.