“If you want to know the truth of who you are, walk until not a person knows your name. Travel is the great leveler, the great teacher, bitter as medicine, crueler than mirror-glass. A long stretch of road will teach you more about yourself than a hundred years of quiet”
Oahu, Hawaii (Photo: Waaltz Hawaii)
“So where are you headed next?” is the question I get asked more often than not these days, and honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way. In these all too short years on this big blue planet, I’ve watched questions come and go in waves:
What do you want to be when you grow up?
Where are you going to college?
When are you guys getting married?
When are you having kids?
As if these closed-ended questions have a simple one world answer. I don’t think people are trying to be insensitive with their questions, I don’t think they’re trying to be boring. I think we, as a culture, just get a little caught up in the routine way of doing things, and it’s just a way to further a conversation when you can’t think of something more interesting to ask. Like being stuck in a never ending elevator and the only thing better than silence is a question you’ve asked, or been asked a thousand times.
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
What if, instead, we grew up hearing:
Did you learn anything new, or meet anyone fun on the play ground today?
What excites you most at school right now?
If you could solve one problem in this world, what would it be?
What is your favorite part of life these days?
What’s up next for you? And are you looking forward to it?
Can you image how this shift would teach a child to think outside the box? Show a student there are many different paths? Allow a single adult to feel they have value all on their own? Simply imagine how interesting the dinner conversations at the holidays would be then.
And while part of this dilemma is the “fault” of the question askers, unable to think of anything more interesting to ask. Part of it is our own. Are we living a life that makes people want to ask us more interesting questions?
As I ventured through the first 30 years of my life I was caught in just that cycle. School, college, post-grad, marriage….But as I’ve broken out of what is expected of me… as I’ve forged my own path of “work hard, play harder,” the questions that have followed me into this decade have become just as exciting as the answers.
I hadn’t planned to start any sort of travel blogging, but the more we go, the more I feel compelled to share our journeys on more than just my instagram reels.
I want to live a life I’m proud of and I want to live a life which inspires others to think outside the box. When people run into me at the grocery store or that elevator… I want them to be compelled to ask, not, “when are you getting married/having kids/buying a house/getting a real job?” But, “What did you learn on your most recent trip/where are you traveling next?!?”
Tulum, Mexico
Before I even begin to dive into our most recent trips (Which I’ll actually put in a separate post (or 10)) I must begin with these:
*Disclaimer 1 - there is absolutely nothing in the world wrong with doing things your culture expects of you. It’s just not for me, and this is my space to show you why. It’s not meant to make you discontent with your own life. It’s simply meant to show another way. I wish I’d been shown sooner.
**Disclaimer 2 - We don’t have children (or pets). We never will. THAT, I feel, is the number one factor in our ability to travel as much as we do. We both work very long hours hustling at multiple jobs during our 9ish month work season then we let loose and hold nothing back for travel during the other three. This will not be a travel blog about how to budget your way through a trip, however, I am great at finding those methods as well if you want to shoot me a DM.
***Disclaimer 3- There is no wrong way to travel, but for us, the only way to really see a new country is to get out of the hotel every single day for a different adventure, drive a rental car everywhere and ask the locals their favorite spots. Pre-packaged group tours are fine if you don’t know where to start, but they are not for us at this point.
****Disclaimer 4 - I am a photographer. Unless otherwise noted I was able to capture all our images using a tripod and interval timer. We also take several iphone photos and those are perfectly fine for most people. I also highly recommend hiring a professional at least occasionally, someone else can just capture you differently (especially if you’re at the top of an illegal hike with 40mph winds that would otherwise blow your camera off the mountain, or feeding an elephant) ;)
Thailand. Chiang Mai, Bangkok, Phuket (Elephant photo from Pern Photography)
That said, stay tuned for the posts to come on all the deets of which seasons to travel where, which areas of the countries to stay in and why, what to bring (and what not to), which airlines, car rental companies, hotels, restaurants and adventures we found worked best for us (and which ones we plan to try on our next trips)!
And by all means…tell me where you’re headed next!!