Home in delightfully unfamiliar places.
PHOTO ALEX BAKER-BROWNIt’s that time of year again. 2012 is quickly drawing to a close and it seems the year has passed in a flash. It’s time, once more, to break out the champagne, make some resolutions and think back on what the year has brought and what it has taught us. So, in light of this festive mood and atmosphere of reminiscence, I have a question for you:
What have your travels meant to you this year? What images do word travels conjure in your mind? The Parthenon? A beach in the Caribbean? The Eiffel Tower or the Great Wall of China? Perhaps Rome on a warm summer night or Macchu Picchu at dawn? A flip book of postcard images revealing strange and exotic places; fantastic visions of what the world holds and the wonders to be discovered outside our own lines of sight and experience if we can just escape daily life.
We always think of traveling as going, of leaving things behind; work, responsibilities, people, problems (people that are problems) but over this year, I have realized that traveling isn’t so much about this act of going, in fact leaving is only the first step of the journey. Real traveling, the true adventure, begins when you realize that you have not only left your familiar setting and habits behind, but your familiar self as well. It begins when you start to miss home, but realize that what you’ve left behind isn’t the same “home” you yearn for, and being happy, content, fulfilled, and everything else people strive to achieve, is more than being comfortable with the commonplace.
This year, my travels brought me everywhere from a villa in Turin, to thriving youth hostels in Rome and coffee with strangers in a hut in Honduras; and throughout all of these travels, I will admit, I was homesick. I wanted to see my usual friends, eat at my favorite local restaurants, sleep on my own schedule, shower in hot water! But every time I came “home”, back to what I had yearned for so much when I was away, I realized that the experiences and life I had created while I was gone, the person I had become while things were put on pause, were a life and a home so much richer and more fulfilling than the one I had left. Traveling, moving forward and change, in general, is terrifying because it is the unknown – a blind leap of faith. But the greatest joy comes in looking back on the decisions you made and realizing all you have, your friends, family and life as you know it, would be so much different if you hadn’t been courageous enough to take the next step, to go somewhere new and do something different.
PHOTO ALEX BAKER-BROWNBut, whether you’re going to Switzerland, Mexico or the Albertson’s down the street, we’re always on an adventure, traveling someplace new. What could be more exotic and mysterious than a land undiscovered, a land without roadmaps, street signs or suggested travel routes. A land where you get to forget your own path. Just remember to leave no rock unturned, no corner of the map left blank, covered with a question mark. The biggest shame is not in disappointment or failure, it is in letting fear stop you from experiencing everything this life holds for you and allowing yourself to remain in a semi-content, bored state of comfort. In reality, we are never completely comfortable. Each of us wants something more, there is always a stirring in the soul, a question or desire resting in the corner of the mind.
In light of all of my traveling, searching truly amazing and unforgettable experiences this year, here’s my tip for 2013, a word to the wise: travel; be confident in yourself, your independence, and seize every opportunity available to you; go everywhere, take risks, be adventurous, be moved and be driven. Remember that these experiences mean nothing without the people you share them with; in fact, the people you meet and have these experiences with are the ones who make each moment glow; they are the ones who make life exciting and inspiring. They turn every daring adventure, wrong turn and blind leap of faith, into home.
So here’s my New Years cheers; a cheers to being young; to the late nights and the daring adventures; to the fits of laughter and the joy of ridiculous incredulity; to the instances of awe and the moments of inspiration; but most of all, a cheers to the people who have made all of it worthwhile.
