As someone who has travelled to thirty-two states and ten foreign countries in my short twenty-four years, it is incredibly hard for me to stay in one place for very long.
I was very fortunate growing up, though I didn’t appreciate it at the time, to have parents who wanted to show me the world. Every summer we would go somewhere new. We would take road trips from Maine to Boston, from Seattle to San Francisco, and we would see EVERYTHING.
I have seen the Grand Canyon, walked through the Red Wood Trees of California, dangled my feet off the Cliffs of Moher, and swam in a 130 feet deep cave in the Yucatan.
When I was eighteen my best friend and I took a road trip down the historic route 66 just to go backpack through Europe four years later.
I have gone shark fishing in the Atlantic and snorkeling in the Gulf of Mexico.
I took my birthright trip to Israel and found parts of myself I didn’t know I could tap into.
Trying to plan my next big trip is always stressful because I want to go everywhere, see everything, taste all the food, and emerge myself in as much culture as I can all while staying in my miniscule budget.
I count down the days until my next trip even if it’s a weekend trip to a nearby city.
I am the kind of person that needs to travel multiple times a year. I need to explore. I need to learn. I have this undying curiosity that is never full no matter how much I feed it.
Learning about the unfamiliar is something that is incredibly important. I am constantly looking for new places to eat, new cultures to experience, and new parts of our planet to explore.
I could never understand people who never leave their state and are OK with it. How is it possible that there are people who are not interested about our world?
When I don’t have the means or the time off the travel, you can find me reading about parts of the world I have never visited, reading about people and their rituals and cultures that may seem taboo to most westerners.
I often look up airfare to countries on the other side of the world, hoping I will find a deal I cannot pass up. Hoping I have another excuse to leave.
The world “wanderlust” is not just something you feel. Wanderlust is something so profound it consumes your entire way of life.
If I do not travel, I fear that my soul may die.
Travelling is not a want vs. need. I need to travel to feel like myself.
“Where will I go next? How long will I go? What do I want to learn? What do I want to see? How long will it take to save the money?” are all questions that are constantly circulating in my head. If I am daydreaming, I am wanderlusting.
Being in a constant state of wanderlust is the way I was raised. I was raised to ask questions and to explore.
My grandfather’s last words to me were “always be curious.”
What an easy promise to make.
Who knows where my travels will take me next. Cambodia? Chile? Montana? All I know is no matter how much I travel, I will always want more. Always.
