Monday 19 January 2015

Why we travel...

I am an eternal daydreamer, I have never really understood how anyone could not be. There are so many questions that you stumble upon on a daily basis. Questions that I feel obliged to ponder over, desperately seeking any drop of an answer. Writing, will set me free. Free from the constant array of thoughts that fill my mind and which distract me from observing the entirety of life's experiences. I have recently moved to Italy, I say it is for six months, but with me you can never tell. I can never tell. The other day as I was walking past the market towards the metro station, confident (maybe even cocky) now with the route, I began to wonder. Filled with thoughts of historic and fresh family problems, and the occasional thoughts of my friends (some of whom are also in that post-study 'lets go to another country' mood). I began to think of why people travel. It is obvious that the world is a beautiful place, so you want to experience everything it offers. But I get the nagging feeling that there is more to the explanation than that. Indeed many people seemingly live a happy life with no strong desire to travel, so there must surely be more to it. I feel like people go travelling, when they are bored with the blandness of the routine they have fallen into, and of the narrow-mindedness of people (usually these are the same people who are content in staying put). They go off searching, to learn, to seek new experiences and, as cheesy as it sounds, also to find themselves. To work out who they are and the type of impact they want to make on this madness called Earth. Not only do they wish to find themselves, but the more people I encounter here from foreign lands, the more I realise how travelers strive to lose themselves. Perhaps not their entire selves, but in some way, they wish to shake something off. For some they seek to lose something that happened, for others it is a mind set. It is weird how this 'old', often hurt self, quickly exposes itself. It comes out in their tone, the phrasing of sentences, the eye contact they give...all exposing the pain they wish so desperately to crush away. Of course this pain, also comes out in an all together less subtle manner, after a few too many cheap tequila shots.

 On that note, hears to all the travellers, in finding themselves and losing themselves.

Ciao for now x