The last decade was filled with many things, but perhaps the most important, and life-altering, was a love of travel.
Unemployment begets travel or something like that
It started back in 2010, just a few months after Ben and I got married. I had quit my newspaper job to move to Chicago once we got married, and amid the recession, with newspapers declaring bankruptcy left and right, I was unemployed, and the job hunt was, at the very least, disheartening.
I had a dozen interviews where I was told I was the second choice, losing out to someone with more experience. Feeling the standard “well, I can’t have more experience without someone hiring me” frustration, I was defeated.
So, I started reading travel blogs to escape the doldrums of unemployment. And, because I needed the motivation to continue job hunting, I used to reward myself with travel incentives. For every job I applied to, I would get to read a travel article. For each cover letter drafted, I could research a new destination.
It was the first time I had ever heard of people quitting their jobs to travel the world. I wanted to do that; reality had other plans. We were newly married, trying to pay off our wedding and college loans, and get our feet under us in a new city. But, that dreaming during unemployment shaped our next decade and undoubtedly has shaped our lives for many decades of travel to come.
Our decade of travel: From dreams to reality
In 2011, we took our first “real” international vacation together, a trip to Italy*. We spent weeks planning our itinerary, booking a few tours, and coordinating our air and train travel. When we landed, we promptly got overwhelmed, and for 24-hours, were confident that international travel wasn’t for us. Then we got a good night of rest, spent a day exploring the Amalfi Coast, and were hooked. We haven’t looked back.
After that, we traveled anytime we could. Whether it was weekends back to see our families in Minnesota, long weekends to domestic locations, or longer trips abroad, we couldn’t get enough.
And, in 2016, we quit our jobs, sold most of our stuff, bought one-way tickets, and boarded a flight to Auckland, New Zealand and ultimately spent 23 months traveling to 24 different countries.
Upon arriving back in Minnesota during mid-2018, many thought our taste for travel would be satiated, but we’ve learned the hard way that we are always going to crave travel.
The gift that keeps giving
The reason for that constant hunger and ache to travel? Because of all the things it gives us.
Yes, we are effusive in our love of new cultures, eating exotic foods, making friends around the world, learning about history while standing where it happened, etc., but travel doesn’t only give us those things.
“Maybe the journey isn’t so much about becoming anything. Maybe it’s about un-becoming everything that isn’t really you, so you can be who you were meant to be in the first place.”
– Paul Coelho
It also has allowed me to rediscover, or perhaps discover, me.
Exposure is an incredible learning tool, and there isn’t a better teacher than real life in locations around the world. I have a love of tea, and some tea knowledge, that wouldn’t be without our first trip to London back in 2012, or subsequent trips to countries around Asia. Ben and I both have experience and respect for meditation after gaining a deeper understanding of religions around the world, including Buddhism and having time to practice.
I also think I am just a better person, a kinder, more open-minded, aware, empathetic, understanding, human. And that is because of this decade of travel.
This past decade has given me a lot, but travel was the greatest gift of all, and I am so excited to continue exploring for this new decade and many more to come.
*Italy wasn’t officially our first time out of the country together. Our honeymoon was in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, in 2009. However, we don’t count ourselves as having traveled to Mexico since we stayed in an all-inclusive resort and never really left. Aside from the beautiful beach, we didn’t experience any of Mexico, but we are excited to remedy that with a trip to Mexico City in February 2020.
