What No One Tells You About Falling In Love While Traveling
No one tells you about the sad parts of traveling, always hopping from one place to another, with nothing to ground you but your luggage and friendships you make that soon become ephemeral.
No one tells you about all the fantastic people you meet on the road, in hostels, in old castles, and about how lonely you feel after saying goodbye to them.
No one tells you about those tiny love stories that happen every single day in a traveler’s life, about the bad timing and the miles separating two people who could have had a perfect story if they didn’t have to go somewhere else, and discover more wonders, still carrying in their hearts the hurt from quitting someone who’s never even been theirs.
No one tells you about how, one day, you unexpectedly meet someone who makes you want to settle, to extend a hand and just love. Love, love, love, until your heart explodes from passion and happiness.
No one tells you that you will choose your travels over that person; and that days, weeks, and maybe years after, you’ll still ache from their absence.
No one says anything about that feeling of misery and emptiness that takes hold of your heart, and doesn’t leave you for a long time.
No one tells you that you’ll be waking up thinking about them, that you’ll be dreaming about them in your sleep. No one says anything about how you’ll be at work, and then suddenly, your mind would wander away, and start imagining what could have happened if you gave that tiny spark the chance to turn into something deeper.
No one tells you that one day, you’ll be having a late night conversation with that person on the rooftop of a hostel, talking and laughing together, but still not saying the important things. Your eyes will be having their own secret conversation, and you’ll be talking about everything, anything, just to have a few more moments with them before going to sleep.
No one says how much it hurts every time their name pops up in your head, or you see something they posted on Facebook.
No one tells you how sad you will be, thinking about the thousands and thousands of miles between the two of you; and maybe they forgot about you, and maybe they found someone new, and maybe it was all in your head, and all that chemistry you felt, and that banter you had, was just them being friendly.
And maybe now you’re just a fleeting memory in their mind, maybe they don’t even remember your name, or the color of your eyes.
Maybe for them, you’re that girl or that boy that they met back when they were traveling an unknown country, that exotic distraction they were looking for during those days.
Your head is full of “maybes” and “what ifs”, because you never had the guts to hold that hand, or give that kiss, or say those words, the ones that would have changed everything.
And maybe now, after all this happened, you’ll go to a new city, and meet a new person that makes your heart flutter.
And maybe that time, you’ll be braver.