People say I have ‘caught the travel bug’, but I don’t really like that term. When we think of a ‘bug’ we think of something negative and gross. As if my love for traveling the world and exploring new places is some sort of illness, some sort of sickness which I can’t recover from.

People ares so quick to judge, as always in life. They discourage what is not ‘normal’ (whatever normal is) and find it difficult to understand why someone is so anxious to jump from job to job, country to country with no stability, no secure income and pretty much no clue what they are doing 98% of the time.

Friends and family think I should have ‘grown out of it’ by now or wish I would realize that travel is great for a few years but that I should want to put two feet on the ground and work on my career, my relationships and maybe even start a family. That I can’t keep ‘running away’ from reality. They dont realize that travel is my new reality and I want to keep it that way.

They cannot get their head around the gipsy way of life so they judge it and they attempt to change you.

When enough people start to tell you that it’s probably time to sink your feet in one city, to get an office job and to start saving for your future…you will slowly start to listen to them.

You’ll find yourself back home, you’ll get a job, buy some new clothes and maybe even think about buying a car. You’ll try to reconnect with old school friends and start to socialize.

But if you’re a Gipsy at heart, just like I am, you’ll never fully belong.

So here we are, us nomadic and Gipsy souls, with a strong desire to escape, to roam, to hike, to fly…stuck in offices doing the 9-5 shift like everyone else. We will spend every cent we earn on experiences rather than things, preferring to go camping or skydiving than buying new things you dont really need, but it won’t be enough. It won’t stop our uncontrollable hunger to see the world. We are not meant to stay in one place. it is not who we are.

You’ll start to dream, yet again, of distant lands in exotic locations where rent is never a problem, where beer is cheaper than water and where you meet new and interesting people every single day. In real life, not on your phone or on Facebook, but in the flesh.

You will start browsing Trip.com as if there’s no tomorrow. You’ll start planning your exit, planning your escape. You’ll become disheartened with life in your home country and slowly grow sick of doing the same things again and again and again and again..

You see, unfortunately for your friends and your family and all your loved ones, this is one bug, one illness, one state of living that you’re never going to recover from. It’s apart of you and probably always will be.

If I’ve caught anything over the past 22 years, I would say it’s a major case of wanderlust rather than any type of crazy travel bug. It’s an irresistible urge to go, to leave, to escape, to learn, to experience, and to live fully.

My wanderlust defines me. It makes me who I am and it makes me want to be a better person each and every day.

My irresistible desire to travel is also a pretty amazing motivator in life. Seeing a picture of a deserted beach in Thailand or animals roaming freely in Africa gets my heart beating. It makes me smile, it makes me long for adventure, and it makes me work harder and longer than ever.
Becuase without money, there can be no travel. 

Travel allows us to be free, to be present in the moment. Travel allows us to live in the here and the now. To be free from the weight of the past and free from any anticipation of what the future holds. Free to realize that we are the masters of own destiny and we ourselves are the only ones who can control how we feel about anything.

Leaving behind the comforts of our own home, and moving to the other side of the world allows us to see things for what they really are and allows us to give our time and energy to what really matters in life. What really matters to us.

Travel allows me to think happier thoughts. To listen to my emotions, and to choose to feel good, to feel better than I feel anywhere else. Travel allows me to be happy, always. 

“Travelling leaves you speechless, but turns you into a storyteller”