Traveling, what does it mean?

Travel means something different to every person in the world. People may have similar reasons for traveling, but they are always a little different than the next traveler.

To me, travel is about freedom. It's about being able to do anything, anytime of the day, any day of the week. Traveling is a fascinating experience; it gives us the opportunity to explore new cultures, new visions of life and, most importantly new ways how to live our existing life. It provides us with the opportunities to meet an immense diversity of people we have never met before. Traveling forces us to live outside our comfort zones, alter our perspective on things, and challenges our deepest beliefs and our personal thoughts. The exciting thing about going traveling is that no one you meet knows about your previous life: you are not automatically assumed to be a certain type of personality/character due to the work/school you are doing or the trappings with which you surround yourself. It is a level playing field upon which to discover which position you are most suited to play, where preconceived conceptions have no place.

There are so many reasons to travel and each individual has their own reason. - but the crux of it is that there is always an element of the unknown, of experiencing a fresh slice of life. That to me is its attraction.

Meeting new people from other spheres of life that introduce ideas and occupations you never knew existed makes traveling even more attractive and a journey on its own. "Travel" conjures up different images and emotions to each and everyone of us based upon age, experience and, our current circumstance, which overrides perceived desires. If you are feeling exhausted and worn down by your daily obstacles "Travel" may only get you as far as flopping on a beach to rest and recuperate. However if you are bursting full of energy and curiosity from College or University, the world of travel is your oyster. No matter whether "Travel" be that relaxing break by the ocean, recharging batteries on a holiday or an expedition into far flung corners of the globe, when one thinks of travel there is always a sense of optimism in everyone's mind!

Furthermore traveling lets you learn more about yourself, about your likes and dislikes, and about your strengths and fears, while being on the go. It will give you, in some cases the "I can make it happen" attitude.

The profusion of traveling gives most people a perpetual, insatiable emptiness in them; it comes from all that richness. It is that feeling of having loved too much, given too much of allowing yourself no inhibitions - such that when it's time to leave (and that time inevitably comes), you're left with nothing more, and nothing less, than a magic treasury of wonderful and unforgettable memories. At the risk of sounding melodramatic, you must accept the fact that you might never be the same whole person again. One is always reminded of the impermanence that I wrote about; the fact that it has to be like this. These are memories and moments that happened because we were there: I was there, and you were there, and we were together at that fateful time, and that time can never ever be created again, or be the same...it is like tiny "Horcruxes" that might or might not survive time. As someone who is most certainly "condemned" to a life of travel, this broken - heartedness is the price that a passionate traveler will gladly to pay again, and again, and again. Because of this, it is also very simple to explain why people like that will never settle in one place after traveling, and why they will never feel completely at HOME again.  It is because they have experienced the feeling of being free and doing something stupendous that gives them the appearance of actually being happy. Throughout traveling you develop a certain flexibility and you do not have a hard time at all adjusting to an unknown environment or socializing with other people. It seems as though occasional or even world travelers live in a sphere of positive advantages - but that is not necessarily true. Most people who like to discover and experience the wonderful feeling of being far away from home will come to a point, during their journey where they suddenly recognize a certain loneliness. As they are always on the go, they make new friends but will not stay with them for a long time because they are either moving places or planning the next trip to another unknown destination on planet earth. ​​​