(My original homepage, preserved for posterity) | A dusk to remember in Costa Rica. |
I've just joined the site and will now attempt to throw something together here. I don't have a scanner to load my travel pics in, something I will try to make happen very soon.
I really love the idea of this site and am glad I stumbled onto it. A combination of a travel info site with a personalized bulletin board type thing - great idea. I enjoyed chatting with many of you yesterday and reading about your experiences, and look forward to much more.
As to the eternal question "Why do we travel?", I'd love to give a deep and meaningful answer but, as I imply in the title of this page, I just don't have it in me. You see, I really don't think it's the "why" that matters. I just love it, so I try to do it as much as I can. I don't ask myself, while eating a chocolate truffle or my favorite ice cream, "Yes, but why do I love it so?", It's irrelevant I guess. Your taste buds like what they like, and it's simply up to each of us to figure out what that is. Nor did I question the reason for the shivers up the back of my neck when I first began listening to Van Morrison years ago. I knew what those shivers were trying to tell me, so I listened more, and more. And then there's my beloved surfing, which I enjoy as much as anything in the world. It's so fun I can't even tell you. I purposely live right across the street from a surf break so I can do it whenever I want. I refrain from having a 9 to 5 job for the same reason. When I have a good day in the water I feel elated, confident, at peace. It's effected me that way for over 15 years, and I know it always will. Why? I don't know and I don't care. That's all part of the divine mystery, you might say.
And so it is with traveling. When I throw on my backpack or load up my camper van and just head out - out of my house, my town, my everyday life - I feel immensely happy. Almost giddy. It's not often in this life that one feels truly happy, that you can say to yourself, "There's nothing I'd rather be doing at this moment." And when you find yourself feeling that way, I think it's life's way of telling you something - "take note of this, this is who you are, do this again". That's how I've always felt when I'm on the move, going to someplace new, someplace different. Since I was a little kid in the back seat of the stationwagon heading up to the Smoky Mountains from Florida on family trips - my first travel experiences - it's always given me that same feeling. So somewhere along the way I reasoned that I'm just a traveler, born that way and hope to die that way.
The things that 'home' gives you; routine, security, comfort, normalcy....we need those things too I guess. They bring a sense of continuity to our lives. They give us perspective. But all the attributes of life away from home - new experience, discomfort, uncertainty, excitement....these things complete that perspective. How much do you appreciate home after being away for a few months, for starters? Everyone does. But in the end I think all those things that we get from our time traveling are the things that make us grow as a person. And that's as much of 'what life is all about' as anything else.
And so, I travel. Or at least I try. I'm lazy sometimes. I live in a very cool place and it's hard to leave sometimes. I procrastinate. I don't make much money. I make lots of excuses. I'm only human. I have all the time in the world to see the world, right? Or do I?
One thing is for sure - I need to go on another trip soon. |
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