To travel is to move my body, to get out of my comfort zone, out of my usual schedules, out of routine, out of traditions, out of the expected work and housing, out of my usual friendships, out of Sundays with my family, out of what is known.
To travel is to face the unknown, is to be willing to experience something new, is to learn, is empathy, is to open a door to the understanding of other lifestyles, is to face myself in different contexts, is to meet new people constantly, is to tell my life story a thousand times and to realize that I can tell what I want a thousand times, depending on the moment I am in.
Traveling is beautiful, it is tiring, it is a challenge, it is the different, it is COURAGE, it is adapting, it is the routine of the non-routine, it is saying goodbye and constantly finding myself again.
Traveling is the purest state of creating my life, it is living my way, it is choosing where I want to be.
Traveling is a privilege, it is a desire.
It is to feel that I need to stop and when I stop I feel that I want to move again.
It is to think that I am escaping and at the same time to realize that life is one and I want to live it traveling and to understand that this can be a valid life choice.
To travel is to move the energy. It is to breathe pure, polluted, pressurized air, it is to feel the culture by its smell. It is to see the effects of colonization and the system in its purest state, it is to see the alternatives finding other ways of life.
To travel is also to work earning high salaries to spend it all on tickets and more trips and to follow that circle until one day I decide to get out of the spiral. It is meeting other travelers and feeling relieved, understood, supported and motivated.
It is to undertake projects and realize that traveling by itself is a full time project.
To travel is to spend hours and hours in airports, bus and train stations, to carry kilos in backpacks and suitcases, to pack and unpack, to have little belongings, to have to choose what is essential and to realize how materialistic this society is.
It is to feel that every time I get on a plane and it takes off, a tear of emotion falls from my eyes. It is leaving behind an experience, it is learning to let go, it is pure detachment.
Traveling makes me rethink myself, it makes me deconstruct myself, traveling I am a citizen of the world, I do not belong to any place.
Traveling is ADRENALIN, SEROTONIN, psychedelia, love, hate, joy, sadness, nostalgia, loneliness, community. It is experience, it is vivencia, it is life itself.
To travel is to motivate, is to inspire, is to show that you can live in new ways, that you can take a step out of the structure if you want to, that you can CREATE YOUR OWN REALITY.
Thanks for reading.
Marina