(C) Christina Saull – All Rights Reserved
The answer is simple, for me at least: a yearning. A yearning to stretch my comfort zone. A yearning to meet new people & experience cultures that are different from my own. A yearning to see every bit of our great country & globe. A yearning that is reinforced by a sense of urgency. A sense that there’s just not enough time in one lifetime to experience everything I so desperately want to experience.Every day I’m not traveling, I struggle with the feeling that the day could have been better spent – cycling across Provence, sipping tea in a Bedouin tent in Jordan, eating street food in Thailand or hiking the Canadian Rockies. This year was supposed to be the year that we traveled less, in order to save up for a big trip next spring. But, in traveling less, I feel like a part of me is empty. My restless days are filled with thoughts of places that I could be going, trips I could be planning, experiences I could be having.
A yearning that just won’t quit nagging me.
A yearning that is seemingly only filled by going new places & discovering new things.
Why do you love to travel? How do you get through the time between trips? I’d love to hear from other travelers!
Christina, your yearning for travel sounds like a curse to me. There is no way you are going to see every single square metre of the planet and even if you did it they would change after you visited.
IMHO, I would advise looking at whether you could impose limits on your travel aspirations. Travel has its dark side, despite the motto “Take Only Pictures, Leave Only Footprints” it still leaves millions of footprints, and dead vegetation all over the world. The ensuing carbon footprints can be even worse.
I know that the limits I have placed on my travel, instead of reducing my happiness, has actually increased the pleasure I experience.
You do not have to travel to stretch your comfort zone and many who travel do not understand their own culture. Travel helps but it is not a silver bullet, just another temporary fix like heroin. IMHO, the real solution is to stop and work out what is important in the world.
Thanks for your comment, John! I think you make a lot of great points. I’m definitely trying to think more “eco-friendly” when I travel, because you’re right: the thing we all love (to travel to new, far off places) ruins what we love for future visitors.
Thanks for giving me more to think about.
– Christina
Honestly, I have the same feeling. I just came back from 9 months in Egypt and I am barely going out these days. I feel like this is “wasted time”. But I know it’s not the right attitude… After all, we’re lucky because we had the chance of traveling before, so it’s great to come home sometimes, share stories, meet friends… and planning the next adventure is exciting as well.
That said, I couldn’t live if I couldn’t travel. Amen. :)
Thanks for posting, Giulia! Nine months is far longer than I have ever traveled for at one time… I wonder how I’d feel after an extended trip like that? Probably thirsty for more :)
Thirsty for more, exhausted, missing that place like hell, wondering what you’re doing back home… not nice:(