Ah — I suppose, at the time, I was anticipating some type of grand, slightly ethnocentric epiphany that most (often young) people seek as they travel abroad. As such, many of my acquaintances expected me to return with 1000 marvelous stories and some profound insight on the world. Alas, as Emerson once wrote, “Travelling is a fool’s paradise”; also, that old adage, “Wherever you go, there you are”; life elsewhere still remains to be life.
Of course, some time has passed since this piece was written. I’m gladly a bit less cynical now and much more accepting of casual travel, i.e. traveling simply for the joy of it and taking what comes with it, whatever it may be, without the pressure of trying to Learn Everything and understand the meaning of life. I imagine that takes a bit more work than hopping on a plane!
Thanks for reading.
