An Open Letter To People Who Think They Don’t Need to Travel

An Open Letter to People Who Believe They Don’t Need to Travel:

So many people I know are afraid of leaving their hometowns. They are afraid of leaving their homes, their families, their home friends, their college friends—their zones of comfortability. Whether this fear stems from a need to be comfortable, from a fear of missing out at home, or from a fear of the unknown, I am unsure. I am equally as confused by these fears as most people are by my inability to stay in one place for a long period of time. So, allow me to let you in on the most exhilarating secret I have learned in my 19 years on this earth.
When you leave your comfort zone, when you get on that plane, bus, boat, car, wagon, etc. When you make the decision to actually TRULY leave, an unbelievable shift happens to your soul. When you land in a foreign place where no one knows your name or your face, where no one holds you to any type of standard or expectation, it is like being able to breathe for the first time.
For the first time in your life, you are FREE. You are free from expectations, from standards, from social and personal obligations. The only way in which someone else will be depending on you is if you give yourself that responsibility—you can create an entirely new self if you want to.
When I step off of whatever vehicle took me to where I was going, I feel like for the first time in my life, I can BREATHE. For once, I no longer feel stuck in the persona, in the mold that everyone in my life seems to fit me into so that their lives make sense. People love to assume things about others and place individuals in neat little boxes so that their view of the world makes sense. “Oh, Theodore is on the lacrosse team? That must mean that he is an egotistical “bruh” who has no real human thoughts or feelings.” “Oh, Sally is in Environmental Club? she must be super nerdy and quiet.” “Oh, Susan is in Mathletes? She must be awkward AF” When in actuality, these stereotypes and neat little boxes that we create for others are not only almost always 100% inaccurate, they hinder us as human beings.
For, we are not made up of just one thing. Just like our bodies are made up of entirely different individual aspects; our minds, and our souls are self created, self formed, and molded entirely by our own INDIVIDUAL experiences. So, forcing people to fit in the neat little boxes in your mind so that you don’t have to think about them, figure them out, or really try to find true friends or soulmates, is actually crippling your life experience as a human being.
That is why I can never be in any one place for very long. I have always known that I do not fit in one box. I love to run and practice Yoga so one could say that I am an athlete. However, I also play 7 instruments so I guess I could go in the music box. In contrast to that still, I love science and the environment. I research the endangered population of sea turtles in the summer. So, does that mean I go in the nerd box? I am in a sorority too though so does that put me in the “prissy, rich, annoying girl” box that everyone loves to label sorority girls as? Well, I don’t think so because I also work three jobs to pay for my expenses.
Growing up in such a small town and being one of six kids, everyone always thought they had me figured out, fit in a very neat little box. The fact of the matter is that I don’t even have myself figured out yet. I’m just trying to be happy and make it through college. So if I can’t fit myself in one little neat box, why would you?
That is why people need to travel—and I’m not loosely using the word “need” here. I mean that traveling is a necessity to exist as a goddamn human being. If you do not explore the facets of the world, of different cultures, different minds, different terrains, if you do not fight back against the neat, tight edges of the box that you were forcefully molded into by others as you grew up; how can you possibly explore all of the facets of your own mind?
If you’re afraid of missing out, I promise you this: whenever you get back from the adventure that you depart on, your house, your favorite swing, you friends, and your family will still be there and they will still love you. And you will find that you didn’t miss much. In fact, you will have lost so much more by not taking that daring leap to leave—you will have missed finding yourself.
So please, take that chance, get in your car. Learn what it means to truly breathe. I promise you, you will not regret a single moment of that liberating air.
“It’s okay to be scared, that means that you are about to do something really, really brave.” – Mandy Hale

Finally

Somewhere
Between soft orange glows
And the sound of water molding rocks

The cracks deeply embedded in my soul
Slowly filled
With British accents,
Loving embraces,
Kind words,
Bright laughs,
and Greek culture.

I became fixed through the work of ancient shells
Foreign minds
And the absolute, undeniable beauty of the world.

I once had come, I had seen, and I had conquered; forcefully lived.

Now,

for the first time since that beginning crack rattled my young heart,

I have come, I have seen, and finally, I have loved.

Oh, have I loved.

The Window Sill

The wood;
softened from years of the same
curious, restless, little girl
nestling up against the screen.
Her mind, too full of unanswered questions to sleep.

She would sit and watch the tall pines wave at her,
as she sat on her little window sill.

Always wondering, always watching;
waiting for something, anything to happen.

Years pass by.
Here, she finds herself.
In this very spot.
Watching the rain fall
and trace the tops of the strong trees that she watched grow old.

As the soft cleansing breathe of rain
greets her face through the old screen in her window,
She begins to cry.

For the first time in her life
she is crying tears of joy
because she finally understands

why

we all were put here on this earth.

An explanation that is too complicated for words.
Yet, so simple…
that she can’t understand why it took so long to meet her.

It is something that only the breathe of rain
and the silhouette of trees can explain to a curious soul.

What was it like?

A brisk, cool breeze used to kiss the baby hairs that framed my face. The leaves would turnover and I’d hear my father’s quickened footsteps stride onto our porch. I would find him perched on white cushions, a glass of ice water in his hand. Each and every light in the house had been turned off.

I would tip toe bare foot across the wooden planks as the cool breeze capered around my ankles. Taking my place on the wicker chair in the corner, I would rest my chin on the window sill, nose pressed up against the screen. I could smell the rain cleansing the burning pavement. Silent, we would observe in awe the world around us.

After years of this unspoken ritual, a question continuously rumbles through my mind accompanied by the roar of thunder.

What was it like to hear the fury of mother nature without the constant harsh sound of cement? Without cars ravaging through her floods?

How different it must have been.

There Is A Place

Beyond the crinkled papers, bins

There is a place where the light is let in,

the cold kept at bay.

A place where you can sit

and watch the world all day.

Late at night, a light will fill the sky

as unknowing people walk peacefully by.

The reflections of the sun caress the floor,

the lights of your past  shimmering like fireflies.

The faded lines of who you once were,

you can’t recognize anymore.

The Fight

The fight.

The fight in your mind. The fight in the fire of your lungs. The fight in your cotton mouth, your burning throat, your screaming legs. This fight. This is what keeps me alive. The fight against yourself and the ability to win it gives me the greatest high—the most satisfaction I will ever be able to attain in my life.

The belligerent voice in your head incessantly screeching “I CAN’T”; I crave the moment when that flame is finally doused by the small, beaten voice of “you will”. That is what I live for. To fight and to win. For passion to overcome pain infinitely, completely.

Fill Me In

Fill my lungs.

Fill my lungs with the smell of fresh rain on hot pavement.

Fill my heart with the soft sounds of the words you speak.

Do not let a moment pass without your smile.

Not an hour, not a day, not a week.

Fill my soul with the thoughts that brighten your world for a while,

that light up your eyes.

The very forces that choose the color of the sunrise.

Passions of the world,

forces beyond every entity.

Run wild. Run fearless. Run free.

Explicitly.

I’ve Been Drifting For Too Long.

I’ve always had this need…this inexplicable need to run away. To find someplace where I felt right. Where I felt warm like the pavement does after a sunny day day in July. I want to immerse myself in the waters of the world and find the commodity that was supposed to ignite my soul. The aspect of my life that I always felt was missing. It feels as though the switch on my heart has never truly been turned on. I want to feel the way that you do when you lose yourself in the sand on the beach; crumbling into the earth that you were created from. Filling in a missing piece just for a moment…feeling entirely whole and momentous. As if your existence was actually vital—just for a moment, as if some part of the earth needed the beat of your heart to continue its existence.
I feel like I’m floating aimlessly for that piece to come along. For that kindred spirit to softly surprise my soul with it’s warmth.