This Is What Travel Means

Travel means knowing that once you step on the plane for your first big trip that you will never feel whole again. It means desperately wanting to be multiple places at once because your heart is constantly conflicted with where you want to be. It means making friends with the locals and hoping they don’t forget you when you’re gone and hoping you can go back to visit.

Travel means being lost in the world and being happy with it. It means finding yourself going in circles and trying to use a physical copy of a map you found somewhere because you can’t use the Internet. It’s finding patience when you can’t explain where you need to go to the taxi driver because of the language barrier.

Travel means being afraid but not letting that fear hold you back from the experiences you truly want. It means saying ‘yes’ to things you’d normally say no to. It’s trying new foods, new drinks and hoping for the best (and that you don’t get food poisoning). It’s trusting your gut more than anything because you are never truly sure what you should be doing.

Travel means making connections and friends from all over the world. It’s comparing and talking about cultural differences and learning new words in different languages. It’s sharing parts of you that you never revealed to your close friends but you feel totally comfortable sharing them with someone you’ve known for a night. It’s doing gross things with new friends that you know your friends from home would cringe at.

Travel means putting your trust in people and learning that the world isn’t so bad or scary. It’s winding up in places that you can’t believe are real and seeing all the unglamorous parts that people tend to leave out of their stories.

It’s everything ending too soon and too many goodbyes that you wish you never had to say. It’s meeting people who you know you will stay life long friends with. It’s conversations and nights that bring you out until sunrise. It’s changing your path to go somewhere you’ve never heard of with people you just met.

It’s thrilling and it’s heartbreaking and it’s fun and it’s more fulfilling than you could ever dream of.

Travel is going on a day trip with the person you just met while drinking your morning coffee. It’s views that take your breath away, strangers who turn into friends and plane rides that fill you with tears because as much as you want to stay you know you need to go.

Travel is doing more in a day than more people do in a month, it’s doing more in a week than most people do in their lifetime. It’s making the most of each day. It’s experiences and it’s truly living. Travel makes you feel alive. It reminds you that you don’t need much more than the clothes on your back, it reminds you that you are born to do so much more than work a job you hate, pay bills and die.

Travel reminds you how good life is. It’s breaking through the ‘norm’ in order to really experience all the things people spend their life trying to teach you in a classroom.

Travel is part of life, it’s feeling fulfilled and empty. It’s wishing you could be in multiple places at once. It’s wearing the same clothes over and over. It’s sweating through your clothes while walking when you should have paid for a ride. It’s not knowing what you’re doing but having a damn good time anyway. It’s eating the best damn lunch you could have asked for for $2.

This is what travel means – it’s to finally understand how life is meant to be lived.