Journal entry, October 20th Why do I love to travel? Why is there a spark that is ignited every time I board an aircraft that is scheduled to leave its current location? Because it strips me of all my conveniences. And do you know what that leaves me? -Room for adventure!
You take away those fruitless picture boxes that provide hours of brainless entertainment; you remove the convenience of words, the convenience of security, the presence of the familiar, the luxury of matching your clothes and the basic communication that text messaging provides, and all you have is life.
It is when life is stripped of all things recognizable; that is when you are you able to see it as it really is. And what is it? I feel that it is different for everyone. For me it is an unexplainable feeling of freedom and basic-ness. It’s when I am reminded that there are few things needed in order to survive. It’s when life whispers to me that I have no emotional ties to clothes, shoes, snow boards or library cards. Family, friends, the sun on my face and chips and salsa are all I need to press forward.
Travel enables you to add things to your character that you wouldn’t be able to add otherwise. It can assist you in developing more of an opinion on things. It promotes self reliability and improves self confidence. My BFF Rachel once said “If confidence was a drug, I would have OD’d by now.” As much as we laughed after her proclamation, I believe that a lot of her confidence comes from the knowledge of the world first hand. She educated herself with an abundance of schooling and backed it up with experience in the flesh.
My brother once told me that “the best people today made the worst mistakes yesterday.” Another beautiful aspect of travel is that
it allows your wounds to breathe. And if you’re lucky enough, to even heal. Your mistakes have time to reflect and this time, with different eyes.
So why do I love to travel; because it brings me out of co-existing into life!
-A journal entry from the book:
Adventure Guru: The Offbeat Commentary of a Female Traveler, written by Starla Skelton