There’s no shame in admitting that you, like so many before you, have an unscratchable itch when it comes to travel. Getting away from it all brings its own rewards in terms of taking a well-earned break, but there’s something else that keeps one eye on the latest travel offers as they are announced by the airlines – love of self-development.
Go away to a foreign country and the person who comes back isn’t the same person who left. Go away again, and the same thing happens. It’s a pattern. You keep finding parts of the jigsaw, and when you find out you’ve uncovered a part of your personal jigsaw that you didn’t even know was missing, you begin to wonder what else is out there.
Even things like lost passports, overbooked plane seats, and How International Bank Wires Work bring their own layers of experience that you don’t get from staying tucked up at home – and if you find those things interesting, you’ve definitely been bitten by the travel bug! Let’s look at some other ways to tell if you’re addicted to hitting the road…
You think about travelling, a lot
“If you wake up in the morning and you can’t think of anything but singing first, then you’re supposed to be a singer, girl.” – Whoopie Goldberg as Sister Mary Clarence in 1993’s Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit. I watched a lot of movies as a kid. Anyway, the point is that if you wake up in the morning and you can’t think about anything else other than travelling, that’s what you’re meant to be doing.
You save up, without a destination in mind…
If you fear spending your money because you know that ultimately its purpose is to be exchanged for boarding passes and hotel keys, you know that travelling is in your blood. You don’t even need a destination in mind. Sort of like a drawer full of cables that you daren’t throw away because something deep inside tells you that you must hoard the goods until such time as the reasoning why becomes apparent.
You get excited about travel gear
Not only do you get excited about buying new travel gear, but you have also come to the tried and tested realisation that less is more – who wants to lug around big waterproof boots when for just a small fortune you could be the proud owner of a sleek new pair that do the same job but weigh half as much – and one folds out into a sleeping bag and the other inflates to become a pillow. Or something. That’s the kind of stuff you crave.
If any or all of that sounds familiar, I’ll bet your passport hasn’t been sat in one place long enough to know the meaning of the word dust.
