To me, traveling is exactly like falling in love. Let me elaborate on this: I feel this way for many reasons, however, mainly because you go through all the emotions of a romantic relationship: Excitement, fear, happiness, sadness, frustration, relief, curiosity, desire etc. It’s a state of mind out of your control… You just have to roll with it!
The longing to explore and discover takes your breath away time after time. You look forward to every moment, every experience it can lead to with an open heart and an open mind. …You can’t get enough. More wants more. Exactly like true love, you always ache to discover more. In return, the feeling you get when discovering something new is nothing less than exhilarating! Actually…it’s addictive – or…it is to me! Because when you’re in love with a person, you not only long for them all the time, however, you also want to know every thing, every detail about them. To me, it’s the exact same emotions that are touched and feelings I get when I travel. Driven by curiosity and excitement, I just want to explore, discover and acquire insight and understanding – and there’s always more to discover. Moreover, it’s the one thing, you’ll sacrifice more or less everything for – it’s about prioritising, right!? And why not prioritise happiness and a positive mind-set at all means?
…Now that I’ve come to think about it, I believe this is exactly why I don’t understand when people don’t like traveling. Why would you not chase happiness!? Of course, like any love, it’s not one without reservation and uncertainty: However, like any true love should be, you trust it – you have your guards open at first but with an open heart and mind. Furthermore, you accept the good and bad. You even reach a point where you appreciate the bad, turn it into good. You fall in love with the differences you can learn from – the ones you grow from. You turn bad into good and thrive on the differences because it inspires you, it motivates you. It motivates you to work harder in pursuing the connection and a better life – the life of a traveler. As a result, you do all that’s in your power to make it work – even if the foreign culture of choice is out of your comfort zone – you adapt and assimilate.
Even if a travel ends up not being for you, you hold memories for a lifetime to treasure. Even if it isn’t for you and the pain is almost unbearable at first, you’re thankful for every experience along the way that has helped shaped you as a person in the process. Even if it’s not for you, truth namely is that you’re a better person because of it.
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That’s exactly why traveling is like falling in love to me. What does traveling mean to you?
xo P!
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http://danegonzalez.com/wanderlust/
