“…And on Saturday, I’m going to the zoo and riding elephants with Thai kids!”
Nothing wakes you up more to the fact that you’re “not in Kansas anymore” when you make a statement like that on the phone to your brother.
Traveling the world has been a dream of mine for a long time. Blame it on my airline pilot father who instilled the ways of packing and jetting in me from a young age. When I thought about what I wanted to be when I grew up or what major to study in college (because we all know that your major locks you into your career for the next 50 years), I had no clue. Why wasn’t “world wanderer, people lover” ever an option?
Yet here I am, 100 days into this Race, doing exactly that. Living out a major that wasn’t written in fancy calligraphy on a piece of paper, but was permanently stamped on my heart when it was created.
And, to be honest, I often forget that’s exactly what I’m doing: traveling the world, living in new cultures every month, meeting new faces every day. Silly butterflies upon landing in an airplane are replaced with nervous wonder of what my sleeping situation will be like that month. Giggling and dancing with children is downgraded in pursuit of a quiet spot to call home or simply to just breathe alone for a minute. Seeing babies riding on the back of motorbikes in beyond insane traffic on the left side of the road doesn’t cause me to blink twice anymore.
There’s this sense of losing the magic of a place and a culture when you’re completely immersed in it.
Traveling has become normal. Living out of a backpack and having frizzy hair has become normal. Seeing a Hindu shrine in a coffee shop has become normal. Wearing a friend’s hand me down pants she picked up from a thrifted pile of clothes that came from who knows where in Thailand, not expecting toilet paper in the bathrooms, jumping in and out of a cold shower; all of these things have become normal.
And more often than not, the struggles and frustrations squash the awe and wonder of traveling and seeing new things. (Might I just add that while writing this post, I noticed a Cambodian man reading over my shoulder. Shout out to you, bold sir.)
It’s almost as if you, dear reader, are the one traveling the world rather than me. You are the one asking questions I often forget to ask myself. You are often more inspired by this world traveling than I am.
So in a strange way, I envy you. I envy the curiosity for a place you’ve never been, the thirst for the next story, the excitement as you look through each photo trying to imagine the life behind that mere frozen moment. Don’t be fooled; staying at home doesn’t mean you can’t travel the world. Because, my friends, in a way, you have taught me more about the rarity and beauty of this life than I have discovered on my own. And for that I thank you.
Don’t stop dreaming, don’t stop traveling, and continue to inspire.
Thank you so much to all of you for your constant encouragement, prayers and support over these last 100 days. I could not have done it without you or reached my financial deadlines alone! I am still in need of roughly $4,500 by January in order to be fully funded, so if you’d like to donate, click the “Support Me” link on the left side menu.
