Travel Bug

It got to me early, the travel bug. It was from one of my first trips that I got mono (an experience that I do not remember as I was about three years old). For as long as I can remember, traveling has been a part of my life as for most of my life my kin have been split between the two coasts of the United States. International travel also began when I was young as I remember traveling to Ireland with my grandparents. With as much travel as I have done, it is hard for me to imagine a sedentary existence for myself.

It seems like I will always be moving, even when I am back stateside. I look for excuses to go and take small road-trips to almost anywhere just so I can get out for a short period of time. Denmark and China were both excellent for that as it was easy to get to somewhere radically different with relative ease. True, China was less expensive in terms of its transport, but both countries were very travel friendly. I enjoyed my travels in both places, and if I had this academic year to do again, I would have traveled more. Hindsight though, as they say, is twenty-twenty.

All things considered, the travel bug is not the worst thing in the world to have. It gets me out to meet new people, see new things, eat new things, and try things that I normally wouldn't do. Traveling for me is part of how I grow. That said, there is a downside of the travel bug. It is hard to keep in contact with loved ones half-way around the world. While technologies such as the internet have made the distance smaller, the internet is far from omni-present everywhere I have gone. In fact, in some of the places I have been, there was no internet access.

My travels have put strains on my relationships with friends and family members. Finding a time that is convenient for both of us to talk is a juggling act, and when that conversation comes, it often times has to be cut short for any number of reasons. The travel bug can also place limits on a relationship, no matter its nature. It's hard to be close with someone who is half a world away. The more I travel, the more I come to accept that my travel bug will place limits on some of the relationships I form. However, if someone can't accept the travel bug as part of me, is that a person that is sustaining a long term contact with?

So I leave everyone out there with a question this week: what is something about yourself that you like that has come to place a bit of a limit on your relationships with other in your life? Drop a line, let me know. I know I can't be alone in this.