Travel

My father use to keep national geographic magazines on the bottom shelf in his library.  I’d look at them and realize that the world was big. I’d imagine my body floating around the world and standing beside the people I saw on the pages.  I wanted to be there.  I made mental notes to one day go to these places. I’d get there but I didn't know what I’d say to them, but I knew they were real.  

There was a time when I was in Vietnam where I closed my eyes while I was riding over a bridge with other commuters. The sound of the engines around me and the smells and heat prompted it. I was happy. In that moment I had gotten what I wanted since I was little.

 I know so little and will ever know so little. I could travel all my days, talk to all I meet, read books and study maps and still be lost. We don’t need to look to the stars for the infinite but to the world around us. The possibilities, the people we can meet and the places we can go are beyond our understanding, for new creations are born every second and the world is ever changing.

So many of the people I’ve met, in the countries I’ve been to, will never travel abroad, hell, even out of their city. And they are content and live full lives. Travel is the luxury of the rich. Many of the travelers I meet are either running away from something or want something new. Its funny how, when we travel, we spend most of our time trying to capture moments of a simpler way of life. Like it’s out of our grasp and we get a glimpse of it by going to foreign countries. We envy the Farmer toiling in his field while we would never trade our lives … I understand this. The grass is always greener. What a lie! Life is simply life, Complex how it may seem, for every person on earth. You deal with what you got. It is by our choices, our desire to change or to be content that we shape it. I think travel, at its core, is just a way to put proof to statements like, ‘’it’s a small world’’ or that we are all part of humanity. One giant entity. People are the same everywhere. They want a place to sleep, things to eat, and people to talk to but we don’t fully understand it till we see it. But still, the grass is always greener.

Then maybe, we should travel to take advantage of a gift so few have. We should travel to gain experience and to open our minds to different ways of life. Maybe just to appreciate what we got. Traveling is often a selfish act but it breeds selflessness. Being anti-social or an asshole will only ruin experiences around the world and thats a lesson to take back home. You learn to depend on and appreciate a conversation. There have been days where I haven’t talked to people because I don’t know anyone, just to realize that it’s my own fault and that I have the power to change it (even if we speak different languages). Fuck self-help, go traveling.