I think what most people meant were in good faith; it is easy to come off as sarcastic on forums when it is not meant in that way. When he recommended doing the reinstall, what he meant was in your situation, that is the typical solution (the default behavior=techy term). If you are not familiar with OS X, going through a gazillion steps is more than likely going to be frustrating. Also, since you are leaving to travel and the current config shows that there is an issue, wiping everything and reinstalling the OS gives you the best chance of taking care of everything.
I would still reinstall. And above all, be sure to back-up all important data. Apple's OS X allows you to use a feature called the 'Time Machine' in which you can make backups allowing you to literally skip back to how the machine was at a previous date. Another feature, Carbon Cloner, allows you to make an exact copy of your hard drive. Now, you do need an external hard drive for this, as putting backup data on the same drive makes no sense
