Finally! Been jonesing to get my fingers on a keyboard and clear my head…
Traveling solo leaves you with a lot of time to think – and without having anyone to talk to or being vigilant about journaling or blogging, that means a lot of thoughts just swirling around and bumping into one another.
Lately, they keep coming back to a quote from the film Into the Wild: “Happiness is only real when shared.”
I think about my travel, everything I’m experiencing – the triumphs, surprises, setbacks, and tiny details of daily life – and my mind goes back to the sobering fact that I have no one to share them with. At least not anyone consistent. No one who really cares.
I’m beginning to think that, like happiness, travel is only real when shared.
It recently occurred to me that that’s the driving force behind my desire to share (possibly overshare?) on Facebook, Instagram and this blog. It’s also at the root of my frustration with the wifi here, and with myself for not making the time to share and connect in a meaningful way. Maybe it’s part of the success of social media as a whole – the reason why we want to share our favorite quotes, random thoughts, or what we had for breakfast. We’re all dying to make our experiences more real; to have the stories of our lives live someplace outside of our own heads.
But I digress.
Even though I crave connection, I feel strangely antisocial. There’s no lack of people to talk to. I just don’t want to. I’m tired of every conversation starting with the obligatory rundown of where we’re from, how long we’ve been here and why we came. Tired of talking about what we’ve been up to in Peru and what our plans are in [insert city here]. Tired of the point at which you part ways, both knowing that in spite of whatever came before, you’ll probably never see one another again.
It’s exhausting.
Thankfully, I’ve also been graced with some great travel buddies, mini romances and unexpected new friendships that can continue back home. They’ve proven the quote about happiness to be true. My richest experiences of joy, wonder, awe and gratitude have all happened in the company of others.
I said when I decided to drop everything and take this trip that it was about recalibration. Not about fixing anything or “finding myself,” but about taking a step back and getting into alignment with the life I want to create.
I don’t know yet what this will ultimately mean or how it will affect my daily life, but I know that things are shifting. The skies are clearing around my North Star, and it’s pointing in the direction of relationships. (Maybe the capital “R” Relationship.) 😉
