This post is a response to “Don’t date a girl who travels.”

If you are like me (and by “like me,” I mean on the internet last week), you saw the “Don’t date a girl who travels” link pop up and be shared enthusiastically. While it may be true that I am unimpressed  with (or rather, indifferent to) your expensive watch, the rest of it is a jumble of unforgiving, amateur generalizations. The troubling thing about “Don’t date a girl who travels” is that it says “Don’t date A Girl Who Travels. Because A Girl Who Travels  is generally better (more socially engaged, independent, creative, interesting, etc.) than you (if you don’t like to travel) and you should actually really want to date her (if you do like to travel). ” But people who travel aren’t better than people who don’t. The travel community itself is rife with one-upping culture. “Don’t date a girl who travels” is just another example of this.

If you really must know, please just don’t date A Girl Who Travels if the idea of interacting with people, cultures, and foods different from your own truly offends you. Please don’t date A Girl Who Travels if you can’t roll with the punches, or if changes in “The Plans” disrupt your ability to retain your cool. Don’t date A Girl Who Travels if you cannot at least pretend to have a good time, for her sake, when she tries to share her love of travel with you. It will actually be heartbreaking for her when you can’t hide your blatant disdain for brass bands in New Orleans, or when you exclaim “Thank God!” when your plane lands back in your home city. It’s not that A Girl Who Travels cannot truly enjoy her time collecting experiences in her hometown (that includes holding a steady job and/or going out to dinner and to the movies between travels, by the way). It’s also not a requisite that you must love every place you to which you travel. A Girl Who Travels knows that a love for travel is not necessarily a love for place, for A Girl Who Travels know you can travel to the same place twice and come away with two completely different stories. But please, don’t date A Girl Who Travels if you can’t see the magic in the story that you together create, because it will cut her to the core, and every attempt to be rational and not take your blindness to her passion personally will fail. Creating stories is her truest happiness.

My guess is that these real reasons for not dating A Girl Who Travels won’t go viral. Don’t don’t date A Girl Who Travels because some thoughtlessly written and shared article claims A Girl Who Travels doesn’t need you and will be bored with you. That girl sounds like kind of a psychopath. Trust me when I say A Girl Who Travels wants you to go with her. Nobody needs to be with another person, but life sure is more fun when you get to share experiences with people you love.

Here’s a piece of dating advice: Date a girl whose face you want to kiss. If she happens to be A Girl Who Travels, congratulations. You’ll probably have a few cool adventures together. If you happen to be a Dude Who is Ambivalent About Travel (but are otherwise kind and compassionate), never fear. Let her leave without you from time to time, because she’ll get to come home to you. And travel or no travel, isn’t that what this whole dumb dating thing is all about?