There's some things I like to keep in mind when I travel. Often, people have asked me how I've had such wonderful experiences traveling and how I've had some of the adventures I have. These quotes are helpful reminders for when we are lost in the act of roaming about.
1. "I was surprised, as always, how easy the act of leaving was, and how good it felt. The world was suddenly rich with possibility." - Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Sometimes we worry and worry about leaving and all of the problems but it is good to keep in mind that leaving is the hardest part, that once we leave it is so easy. The world is a splendid place, so don't let the first step of leaving be the one that holds us back.
2. "Let’s not travel to tick things off lists, or collect half-hearted semi-treasures to be placed in dusty drawers in empty rooms. Rather, we’ll travel to find grounds and rooftops and tiny hidden parks, where we’ll sit and dismiss the passing time, spun in the city’s web, ‘til we’ve surrendered, content to be spent and consumed. I need to feel a place while I’m in it."- Victoria Erickson
Every time I went into a church in Europe I prayed. The architecture was often lovely but the prayer was my favorite part. The thought of thousands of people gathering over and over again in the same place to bring their emotions before the Creator in this one place was beautiful. You could feel that. I've seen so many people with bucket lists of things they want to see and do. They come home with so many souvenirs to proudly proclaim to everyone they know that they have been there. But they often lose something so special. Don't go to a place because it's on your list, go to a place because you want to feel it. Don't get so obsessed with the idea of this list you need to complete for full contentedness. You will die and you will not know when, so instead of trying to achieve a goal before death, make the goal to be living fully in each moment you are alive.
3. "The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see."-Gilbert K. Chesterton
This quote ties into the one above quite a bit but I like the clarification of who you are when you travel. As much as I loved watching the Eiffel tower light up at night, as I had planned to do forever, it doesn't even come close to my unplanned bus trip to an unknown place outside the city of Granada to find the coolest trail I have ever been on. When we are tourists, we are going to a place to see something we've been told to see and probably seen pictures of, whereas when we are travelers, we roam about noticing the beautiful things and having adventures along the way.
4."This summer (or whenever), put your phone away for a few days. Make some memories that no-one knows about. Make some memories that are just yours."-Anonymous and "One minute. Don't read. Don't talk. No photos. Just look....and see."-Sign at the Grand Canyon
One of my favorite travel memories comes from my trip in Rishikesh, India. I didn't have a phone or camera the whole time, the only pictures I have are the ones my friend took. And my favorite memories of watching the monks chanting down on the Ganga, white water rafting in the Himalayan Mountains, yoga in an old building in the middle of a garden at an ashram, weren't captured on camera at all. These memories are mine. No one can ever picture them, no one can know the intimate details of them, except the person I shared them with. It's not to be selfish, it's to have substance. It's to be a person beyond a screen. It's about fully experiencing one's surroundings without any distractions.
5. "Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." T.S. Elliot
I had a teacher who told me I couldn't handle going to India for five months. He talked to my parents and told them I was completely unprepared. He said it was too much for me. I went anyway. I loved it. I thrived. Don't ever let anyone tell you you can't do something. Don't even take the time to fight them. You can go so much further than anyone else can believe.
6. "Experience: the most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my god do you learn."-C.S. Lewis
There are days on the road when everything falls apart. Things will happen that are so much harsher on the road than at home because everything is intensified when you travel because there are no distractions of the check list items you need to accomplish, there's no family to hold your hand, you are fully present. But those intense experiences give the clearest lessons, so learn.
7. "I’ve survived a lot of things, and I’ll probably survive this."- J.D. Salinger
There was one day where my cousin and I got lost on a trail hiking in Canada. We were in a forest with bears and rattle snakes. We made a wrong turn and didn't see anyone. We felt screwed. We ended up hiking over twenty miles that day and eventually even hitch-hiked. That was an incident where I felt like just giving up and crying. But we kept walking. And we survived. Life is a wild adventure. When you get in a situation where you are scared and worried, just remember how far you've come in life thus far.
8. "A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing."-George Bernard Shaw
When you try to be a good person, you often find yourself making mistakes. Trying to change things means that you are many times you'll be doing things other people haven't, it's new territory. Mistakes will be made, that can't be avoided. But just because you failed at something doesn't mean you've failed over all. It is so much better to try than doing nothing.
9. "If we could look into each other’s hearts and understand the unique challenges each of us faces, I think we would treat each other much more gently, with more love, patience, tolerance, and care."-Marvin J. Ashton
I think about my time on the border of Mexico. I think of the people seeking asylum that I met and how they will never receive that asylum, so they will become immigrants in the U.S. that are not legally documented. I think of the tears a mother and father shed about their daughter being raped and murdered by those with power in the city she was from. I think of the boy who couldn't sleep at night because every time he closed his eyes he saw his father being shot by the drug cartel. This was the first experience I had of trying to understand another culture and then when I learned their stories, I was in tears along with them. It's easy to dismiss another culture and people who are different from us as wrong because it's hard imagine the experiences they've had or understand their beliefs. But everyone has had challenges in their life. When you travel these are especially important things to remember; love, patience, tolerance, and care. This is how you respect those differences.
10. "I may not have gone where I intended to go but I think I ended up where I needed to be."-Douglas Adams
Sometimes when you're on a trip plans don't work out the way we expect them to. But that's not always a bad thing. I had some idea of a plan on my last trip and all of it changed. But it was perfect just the way it was. It's so easy to get caught up in our plans not working out that we lose sight of the incredible opportunities we are given instead.
11. "Time you enjoyed wasting is not wasted."-John Lennon
Some days you just need to watch some Netflix, cook yourself a decent meal, and lay on the beach until your skin is red. And that's okay. Not every day on a long trip can be filled with adventure and fun or else you are going to get burnt out. You don't have to feel guilty about breathing. If you don't stop and take a break every once in awhile then travel is going to begin to seem tedious and exhausting, and travel should never feel that way because it is a beautiful privilege to see and learn from an incredible world.
12. "If you get a chance, take it. If it changes your life, let it."-Harvey MacKay
Sometimes on a trip we are faced with an opportunity; jump off the bridge into the water, try the street food, eat with a stranger, let yourself fall for the person who lives far away, climb to the lookout on the mountain, dip your toes in the whirlpool, dance in the monsoon holding hands with the family you've created on the other side of the world. Don't be scared to take a risk, and don't hold back, fully absorb the risk, let it change you.
13. "To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, draw closer, to find each other and to feel. That is the purpose of life."-The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (Life Magazine)
This wouldn't be complete if I didn't have a quote from my favorite movie, one about following your dreams and living a life of adventure. This quote is a reminder to me of why I travel. Give me the danger, the tears, the gritty and hard truth, the deep relationships that bring the most painful goodbyes. I want to feel everything for everyone. I want to be fully human with everything good, bad, and uncomfortable that brings. I travel to be authentically alive.
No one is perfect and there's no perfect way to travel but hopefully on your next trip these quotes may help serve you as a guide as they do for me. But I think it's also good to note, that from my travels I have learned I should always be traveling through all of life. Now, I think that people should go out and see the world, there is no substitute for that experience. But, we can also use these quotes in our daily lives. We can be travelers where we live as well. I not only reflect on these quotes on the road but also in my bedroom. I am a traveler everywhere I go.
