As Diwali approaches, most of us are busy planning our annual vacation with military precision – flights booked, itineraries printed, Instagram spots shortlisted. We are raised in a world obsessed with plans. Childhood comes with timetables, adulthood with targets, and somewhere in between, we start mistaking calendars for compasses.
Whether it’s the ten-year career roadmap, the bucket-list vacations, or the five-step “life goals” strategy, we are constantly told to look ahead, aim high, and measure progress by destinations reached.
But then enters a Spanish word that throws a delightful spanner into this spreadsheet life: hashtagVacilando. It describes traveling with no fixed destination, where the journey itself is the purpose.
Imagine that! Walking without rushing, living without obsessively plotting, experiencing without calculating ROI.
The very act of moving becomes more important than arriving.
Why does this matter?
Because life isn’t a PowerPoint deck – it’s a messy, unpredictable road trip.
Plans are comforting, yes, but also limiting.
When you’re always fixated on the end goal, you miss the quirky detours:
the café with the world’s worst coffee but the funniest waiter,
the book you stumbled upon because you missed your train, or
the random conversation that ended up shaping your worldview.
Vacilando is a gentle reminder that sometimes the accidents are the real adventures.
And here’s the witty twist:
Plans give us predictability, but predictability is boring.
A journey where everything goes according to plan is basically a pre-recorded Zoom webinar of your life. Who signs up for that?
Vacilando whispers that spontaneity – those moments you didn’t design – often leave the deepest footprints.
That said, let’s not romanticize drifting aimlessly either.
Going with the flow can’t be a life-long excuse for ducking responsibility.
A balanced approach is key.
Too much planning, and you become a prisoner of your own Excel sheet.
Too much wandering, and you’re just lost with a poetic vocabulary.
Vacilando, therefore, is not an argument against goals. It’s an invitation to loosen the grip.
To walk the road without obsessively refreshing Google Maps every five minutes.
To let uncertainty teach you, surprise you, and maybe even laugh at you.
Because in the end, destinations give closure, but journeys give stories.
So next time you plan your life or your next holiday, leave a little room for Vacilando.
After all, what’s the point of reaching the destination if the ride itself wasn’t worth remembering?