Traveling and making memories is something that I will always cherish. People constantly ask which is more enjoyable, the journey or the destination? Traveling for most of my life means this is a question I've been asked multiple times and as I'm getting older my answer has changed drastically.
Growing up, the destination, 110 percent. When I was younger, the journey was simply horrible and long and took way too much time. It reminds me of the movie "Are We There Yet?" because that was a question I asked all of the time. Being young you never really understand how impactful your journey is. Not only on vacation but through certain parts of your life as well.
Obviously, your journey through life is on a much larger scale but you get the picture. You travel for hours or days and eventually, you simply want to get to where you're going. You want to be out of the car or off the airplane or the train and you want to just be there. Though the destination is obviously the highlight of most peoples trips, as it was once mine, I have come to love the journey and the company of the trip more than anything.
Throughout the years I've had the opportunity to travel all over the world in the United States as well as out of the US. I've taken trips with my immediate family, my extended family, and multiple groups of friends. Each destination different and each journey even more distinct than the trip before.
Traveling with family was something I was very blessed with growing up. It was an experience that I will always be grateful for and it was something that truly made us closer and more tolerable of each other. Some of my best experiences and dearest memories have been on the journey of our trip rather than the destination. Traveling with friends, though much different than with family, has lead to some of the deepest laughs I've ever had. I would never give up the journey of my trips and the amazing company that has traveled with me.
I've come to learn that it is so incredibly easy to get caught up in the destination - to look at this amazing place that you're going to and think that it is the only important thing. Next time you travel, think about your journey and how much it adds to your trip. Think about the company that you're spending time with and how their presence makes your trip so much more enjoyable. Being surrounded by your family and friends is an absolute blast when you've reached your destination, but your trip in itself adds so much.
Next time you go on a trip ask yourself: The journey or the destination?
