Traveling is a weird concept. You go out of the space you're familiar with, and in a sense escape from reality. You spend so many days forgetting, or trying to forget, all your worries. Then, you have to switch gears back to the real world. And when you go back to the real world, it's normally a sad feeling. But this sadness is only because you had to say goodbye to another adventure in the books.
Traveling is important. It's important for many reasons, and not just for the ones that pop into our brains right away, like it's fun, relaxing or a nice "break". Traveling is important because it teaches us how little we really are in this huge world. It humbles us to the fact that when we are in an airport, we are simply someone filling up a seat on the plane. Our destination isn't any more or less important than the family running through the terminals so they don't miss their flight. Our destination isn't better than the couple who just visited Philly to visit their parents when we went to Hawaii. Everyone has their own destination and adventure.
When you go on a trip, you open yourself to whatever lies ahead. You may not know what's going to happen, who you will meet or what you will do, but that's okay. For once in your life you can be okay with not knowing. That's why I love traveling so much. You can just forget about planning and trying to control situations, because there's no way you possibly can control what lies ahead.
There's a quote, "Not all who wander are lost" that is overused a lot, but it really does capture the magic of traveling. No, I'm not saying you have to pull out a map, close your eyes, and point down to where you're going to go and get lost on the way. I'm saying that letting yourself be comfortable with being uncomfortable while wandering is the feeling that traveling gifts to you. Maybe you will get lost on your vacation, or maybe you know exactly where you are every minute of the trip. That's not what it's about. It's the experience that counts, it's the adventure of letting go.
There are 50 states in the US, 196 country (according to Google, I did not count), over 55,000 museums, and thousands of wonders of the world. The miles that you venture aren't what counts. Try to challenge yourself to experience the true weirdness yet beauty in traveling, because it's not hard to do. The more you allow yourself to open your eyes to in this amazing world, the happier you will find yourself. You and I may only make up 2 out of over 7 plus billion people in the world, but that doesn't mean your adventure is any less than the other billions around us.
Let go.
