I’m sitting on my bed as I type this down; four tabs open on Google Chrome. The first tab is set on YouTube playing my seemingly endless playlist of travel vlogs. The second and third tabs are set on two different flight booking websites and the fourth tab displays a blog highlighting “Switzerland’s Best Spots to Visit!”
Yes. I’ve succumbed to a bad case of wanderlust.
Wanderlust feels like a serious condition. It calls for a change in routines and an escape from your present and daily surroundings. Or maybe, as cliche as it sounds, wanderlust is a call to “finding” ourselves and becoming who we’re meant to be. It opens the door to a new world with different people, foods, languages, smells, colors, and customs. It opens us up to different values and beliefs influencing millions of others.
I have had the complete pleasure of shaping my life around the rich cultures I have had the opportunity to grow up in. At a young age, I was pushed out of my comfort zone to learn new things about myself and the world around me. This exposure has only made the craving to expose myself to other cultures stronger and broaden my outlook of the world. I’ve often caught myself daydreaming of adventure outside the confines of what my state and country has to offer. I believe most of us seek not only adventure, but the longing for contentment nestled in a country different from our own.
My “happy place” is in Switzerland. No, I’ve never been. Never even stepped foot outside North America. My knowledge of the place has limited itself to the confines of the internet, my “faux” escape. Personally, nothing about Switzerland being my “happy place” makes the slightest bit of sense to me, but it’s something that’s clicked with me and I willingly accepted it a long time ago. The idea of sitting on a field in Zermatt, Switzerland while I sip on my hot chocolate as the sunrise illuminates the Matterhorn’s ridges stirs a feeling of excitement and longing inside me.
There are those individuals who are struck with luck and find that happy place at home. They never feel the urge to leave their routines, and are content to stay surrounded by what they’ve always known. However for some of us, our “happy place” lies too far away or just out of reach. Or maybe travel is limited by our financial constraints and pesky responsibilities. Finding the money and time to fit in an extensive trip across the pond is hard. Sure it’s easy to say, “work hard and save up” but even that can become difficult when your schedule is bulked up with classes, homework, and internships.
So how does one cure a bad case of wanderlust while being limited by money and time? Unfortunately I haven’t found that answer myself apart from the obvious being, save up and wait. Maybe taking a different route to work, or booking a weekend getaway in a fancy hotel in your city may help distract your adventurous heart. But I believe the longing and waiting will be worth it in the end, because there comes a time when living through travel blogs reaches its limit.
