The Brain Is A Noodle Prompt / What gives you wanderlust?
My Wanderlust Has Retired
A senior evaluates dreams and realities
I’m not fully retired yet, but my wanderlust is.
Not that my wanderlust ever had feet. Wandering the world was an unrealized dream. In my youth, I knew, just knew, that I would be a world traveler. But that never happened.
Life got in the way. Well, “a” life got in the way. Not the life that I expected for myself, but the life I accepted, always thinking it was temporary. There was a day in the future when things would change — my life would change — and I could finally realize my dream of wandering the world. That day never came.
There wasn’t a moment in time when I said, “Well, that’s never going to happen.” Instead, it was the slow creep of reality. Money, family, work, health — all conspired to keep me tethered.
I’m not complaining. I take full responsibility for my choices — good and bad. Each moved me further from my dream — no, that’s wrong. Each moved me closer to a different dream — the dream of having the family I didn’t have as a child.
I didn’t choose a path that valued family over travel, but I made choices that created a path leading me further from the world I wanted and…
