It’s rainy and cold in New York today and I feel the desire to be somewhere else come on slowly. Work is getting overwhelming and so are the emotions that accompany the changing of the seasons. An instinctive feeling begins to form in my gut to let me know it’s time to get back out on the open road.
That was this morning. By the afternoon, I’ve booked the flights, rented the car, secured the accommodations and mentally checked out of any of the mundane day-to-day activities that stand between me and this next adventure.
Sometimes, I wish this line of thinking worked differently. I want to be more stable, appreciate little moments more profoundly, invest in the mundane and make my day-to-day life as thrilling as a day out on the road. But I wouldn’t even know where to start. Nor do I think that’s particularly possible. I travel to create space for myself to think clearly, beyond the limits of my daily routine. In a place where I’m not worried about laundry, subways, or workload. All I can see ahead of me is the open horizon, and all I can think about is where I’ve been and where I’m going.
Particularly on long road trips, driving for hours on the same rote highways or rural backroads, an in-between space opens up in my mind where I feel untethered from routine anxieties and free to reflect on ideas outside the boundaries of ‘normal’ life.
Let me attempt to explain. When I’m leaving for the airport or on a car trip, there’s a certain amount of anxiety in the build up: going through security, packing the car, etc. But slowly, over the course of the journey, the tension of daily life starts to ease. If I’m driving, typically when I cross out of New York State and into another territory is around the time when I can feel my shoulders relax and my tongue leave the roof of my mouth. There’s no one ahead of or behind me on the road that needs anything from me. I am free to explore my own creative thoughts and insights for whatever amount of time I’ve allotted myself. I am free to just be.
For me, traveling is a safe form of escapism- I can run from my problems and live contentedly for a fixed amount of time before I need to go back to ‘real’ life and manage whatever is barreling toward me. I used to just move my entire life whenever I felt like it was time to go- travel feels like a good compromise between living day-to-day and uprooting everything to start anew.
I travel to learn about myself, but I also travel to learn about the world around me and the people who cohabit this planet. I’ve been to almost every state in the continental U.S. There is something beautiful in every place. Sunflowers in June on the side of the highway in Kansas. Lush, rolling green hills in South Dakota. Ueartheral desert landscapes in Utah and Nevada. Places and things I’d read about in textbooks and seen on YouTube, but didn’t really believe existed until I got out on the road and saw them for myself.
And the people. This country is made up of characters- myself included. But just like the landscape, you find good everywhere you go. A waitress who cut our bill in half in Rapid City because she felt like she’d made us wait too long. A train conductor in West Virginia who played the horn for us when I waved from a raft in the New River Gorge. A Sonic employee in Oklahoma City trying her best to help us with the resources she had after the establishment had been hit by lightning.
For me, at least, what I can currently see and understand is often all I can see and understand. I need to go out and meet different people and see unique landscapes and get dirty and eat authentic barbecue and engage in the everyday rituals of places unbeknownst to me so I can widen my perspective, and create a wider lens through which to view the world.
I like to drive when I travel because I want to get my boots on the ground. I want to take the backroads and stop in at the local diners and meander toward the hikes and scenery I didn’t know existed until I asked for directions. In cities, I walk for the same reasons.
I’ve learned more about myself, who I am, and how I can show positively in the world around me through travel than I have in any other way. I love life out on the open road.
So, with the car rented and the flights booked and the compass pointed toward my next location, I can only imagine the things I’ll see, the people I’ll meet, and the perspectives I’ll gain on this trip.
I travel to find myself, to understand the world, and also, because who doesn’t like the opportunity to get a little dirt on their boots?
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