All the World Traveling I'm Not Doing at Present
My deepest yearnings unwind like an open road, beckoning.
I am heartsick for places I've never been.
Even the simple act of eating food reminds me of how much I want to travel. I had kimchi on my eggs and this made me wistful for Korea. Olives on my Subway sandwich and I wondered how much better the olives would be in Italy. I ate tacos and they weren't the same as in Mexico.
At an interview, I was asked "how do you see yourself three years from now?"
"As an itinerant," I didn't say.
In my free time, I plan months in Argentina, Polynesia, Bulgaria, Morocco. I save up coffee cans full of dollar bills and quarters and sigh about how expensive it is to travel. I make monthly crypto buys and hope for the day when I have enough to buy my way out of this stationary life and into my new, nomadic one. Enough to buy my freedom.
I obsessively get rid of things. Things that might eventually come in handy, but that will not fit in my suitcase.
When I close my eyes, I think about what I will do on the airplane in between destinations, and then I envision the way my feet will look walking on Parisian streets or Thai beaches, and I imagine how magnificent it will feel to be surrounded by unfamiliar sounds and sights and smells again.
Sometimes I practice foreign languages until I speak them badly but doggedly in my dreams.
Last week I shed tears at the realization that I probably would never get to go to Mars, or the moon, even. But at least I can probably disembark upon six continents before I disperse.
Why am I not exploring this planet right now? Why am I not exploring it always?
I suffer from acute inflammation of the wanderlust.
Can you relate?
My heart also wanders to the different parts of the world, Imagining what I would be doing If I were Anywhere but here where I am now. I feel I am stuck at this Place, where the time like sand is slipping away from My fist, and there is no way of stopping it. With each passing moment I could have enjoyed great pleasures of the world, But here I am stuck At this place.
I know the Time will not stop, and I am getting older, day by day. One day There would not be much left in me to travel, But my heart will still wander to different parts of the world.
One day, I bet most people will not even live in one place all the time. They will skip across borders like children skip over cracks in the sidewalk. But we will be dead, and won't get to experience it. Lol
Hope that day come while we still could travel. Nice thoughts, Uovoted and followed you.
Thanks, @looftee !
Oh Star... I share the affliction. If I could travel always, I'd be very tempted to do just that.
I swear I'll figure out how one of these days...
I very much identify with what you feel. I've got an old VW Vanagon rusting in the yard waiting for an adventure that won't come for a long time. Best part of being young was the ability to pick up and go out on the road. Now I'm older with a baby and responsibilities. You expressed your wish to travel beautifully. I hope you get to go somewhere soon.
I hope you do, as well! Vanagon adventure FTW!
When my daughter was a baby, we spent a summer living in an old Airstream on the top of a mountain with no electricity. We had to go out and pump water by hand. Those were happy times.
That's really awesome. It sounds like a fun experience. My favorite trip was one where we randomly decided to visit the town in Idaho where Napoleon Dynamite was filmed. It was so pretty we stayed a week and drove our VW on all the old dirt back roads. If I had more money I'd be in the VW in a heartbeat.
Thanks for sharing... this makes me dream of Vietnam. Sitting on a small plastic chair on the side of the road enjoying some mysterious broth with a Bia Hanoi.
Sounds amazing!
Deep post! UP