I have more knots in my hair and bug bites and bruises than I’ve ever had in my life. I’ve stayed up til four in the morning and have dived into the bluest, darkest waters with the wildest abandon. I’ve fallen off sidewalks and cycled through cities. I’ve seen many strange and beautiful and rare and precious things. And for these things I am better. I am richer.

Travel teaches us that the wrinkles in our hemlines and the sunburns on our faces are symbols of complete and utter freedom. That being fancy free and unrestricted comes from a change of heart and of letting go of our expectations. Travel teaches us that we are unlike the person who caged us into normalcy. We are so much more. We are capable of great things. Because we are akin to so many different people, different cultures, different lifestyles. We are all the same buried down underneath our muscles and bones.

Travel teaches us that time is an elusive and figurative mess that we attach ourselves to. “I’ll do it when I’m older, when I have more money… if I were your age I would…” Travel teaches us that sometimes the best days are spent with no agenda and no fear. Travel teaches us that you, me, we are human. Frail, weak, yet seeking humans on a spinning blue marble in the sky.

It’s been over a month since I first wrote these thoughts down on to paper and I can honestly say that they still ring true to me. Why do you travel? What do you seek when you hop on that plane? What do you learn from a good hundred mile or two away from home?