Travel has always been a thing for me, but recently I’ve put a little more focus on it as I realize just how important it’s been in my life. Since I was a young child I have traveled around the country doing things. Nothing too extravagant…just popping over to Vermont to visit relatives, zipping over to New Hampshire to check stuff out, exploring western Pennsylvania for camping and general random trips to Florida for more relatives.

However, as I got older, some of my trips have become a bit more entertaining. Flying out to Santa Cruz for a week and immersing myself with the locals. A quick trip down to Mexico for a vacation. Then I discovered the joys of going on cruises and I found myself going on a bunch of them within a year and a half period where all of my shore excursions were well off the beaten path and spent exploring the local shops and restaurants and pubs. Getting to sit down and spend a good bit of a day drinking with Anthony Bourdain back in 2005 was certainly a highlight of all this, listening to his stories and finding myself giddy to meet someone that was able to travel as much as he did.

Since graduating from college I had always made my way back to Carnegie Mellon (Pittsburgh) every April to catch up with old friends and meet new ones. It didn’t matter which part of the country I was living in, I always went. Upon return of these annual trips I’d often find myself deep in thought, feeling a bit lighter in the head as I was able to blow off some steam but also feeling ponderous about what I want to do with my life and setting new priorities. This re-prioritization happened every year.

Then the annual snowboarding trips started happening and I found myself doing the same thing. Pondering life, re-prioritizing my life, and generally seeing improving my life from the inside.

A few years ago I finally made my first big trip…over to Ukraine for nearly two weeks. This was truly an eye-opening “holy crap what am I doing with my life” experience. New foods, people, ways of life…it had everything. I did a trip back to Ukraine about half a year ago and experienced much of the same (despite the country being in the throws of war). Then a couple months later I went down to Colombia and had myself walking around bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for another 11 days. Stories of these trips will soon be chronicled on here.

So…the point of all this rambling? To point out that my travels started simple enough and have morphed into amazing life changing events that leave me hungry for more. Hungry to learn, hungry to experience, hungry to better myself.

What Is Travel To Me?

Travel to me is an opportunity to see just how very different my life is than those in other places. It’s an opportunity to kick myself in the rump when I get stressed over stupid stuff and to feel grateful for the simple things I have…like a job, running water, access to aspirin and Band-Aids. It’s a chance for me to eat better food, which reminds me to eat better food when I get back to the States. It’s a reminder that as smart as I think I am, I don’t know squat. It reminds me to experience life with open eyes and to not judge things that are different.

This is why travel is important to me. I think everyone needs to travel for these exact reasons. Travel more and see what kind of impact it has on your life.