Why I Really Love to Travel

I think my love for traveling began long before I ever ventured out of the country. I’m pretty sure it started when I was no more than six or seven years old and sat in the crowded backseat of a Nissan Sentra with my sisters as we made our way through the seemingly unending Texan desert. That was the thing about my family - we loved, and I mean loved, road trips. I have vivid memories of looking out the window and staring at miles and miles of stars as we drove from town to town, usually to our favorite vacation spot in the New Mexico mountains.

There are so many reasons why even back then, I fell in love with traveling. It’s hard to put some of them into words, but this list is my attempt at it. These are some of the main reasons I’ve got a bad case of wanderlust.

Traveling Allows Me to See Nature

Traveling for me has always meant getting to see nature. When I was little, it meant driving straight through mountains that had been cut in half to make room for highways. It meant spotting deer on the side of the road, and hawks flying miles overhead. It meant driving through rainstorms and sunshine and wind that blew in our faces through our rolled-down backseat windows. Even now, getting to see different nature is still one of my favorite parts of traveling. It fills me with such awe and wonder at all the beauty and diversity that God's created, and it makes me feel so blessed that we’ve been given the opportunity to witness it.

It’s an Exercise in Empathy

I find the fact that not everyone does things the same way I’m familiar with to be so fascinating. Seeing the different ways people eat, work and live with each other is an amazing opportunity. It serves to remind me that the world is so much bigger than me, and that we can’t always understand others through our filtered and biased perspectives. Traveling is so often an exercise in empathy. It’s about putting down our pointing finger and letting the world around us be our teacher for a day.

It Fils me with Wonder

I love the feeling of discovering a place for the first time. It’s the same buzz you get when you experience something really amazing for the first time ever. There is something so unique and special about that feeling that's not easy to find in the routine of our everyday lives. That’s why I hold it so closely when I do find it. I relish in the newness of places. I love to see every bit of them, and be in awe at every part. That’s why when I travel you’ll find me ordering unfamiliar things off the menu, stopping at interesting looking local shops and, more than anything, avoiding familiar spots that we have back in my home city (most of the time, anyway ;).

Why do you love to travel?

#2016 #travel