I constantly have a weird battle going on inside of me when I travel (and really, every day in my life). I have the urge to settle and the need to see.everything.now, right at the same time.
This means that while I am traveling, my favorite thing, I am also simultaneously playing a game I call “Imagine If I Lived Here,” another favorite thing of mine.
Imagine If I Lived Here involves sound and thorough research, in the form of the following questions: is it cute, would I feel scared, is there a lot of good food nearby, do I like this country’s food so far, how close is the ocean, is there a language barrier, how do I feel when I’m here, would I actually be able to survive here, and so on. Some places merit more questions than others, especially in places like Beijing or Bangkok, where I spent most of the time slightly terrified for my life. (I think that’s a side effect of growing up in a small town in a state with more cows than people).
I’ve imagined what it would be like to live in Bruges, where I would ride a bike everywhere, buy fresh baguette to carry home in my basket, run a bed and breakfast, and walk by views like this:
I’ve imagined what it would be like to live on the Irish coast, in a tiny village where you know everybody and they all know you, on a little farm, with a view of the coast from my attic:
I’ve imagined what it would be like to live in a bustling city like Hanoi, riding a motorbike through the overcrowded streets, visiting Uncle Ho (as in Ho Chi Minh) every once in a while with the crowds:
I’ve imagined what it would be like to live in London, a huge, busy city, commuting home every day on the Tube, walking in my charming neighborhood on the weekends, heading to the South Bank for summer sunsets:
I’ve imagined what it would be like to live in the Andes of Peru, surrounded by ancient monuments, selling crafts or writing down local stories, amongst the behemoth mountains:
It makes me wonder if that’s why I travel: to find my elusive “home.” I’ve learned that the more places I go, the more I can imagine anywhere being my home, and parts of me really wants that. Other parts of me want to be nomadic forever. I love to travel, but it gets murky when the word “home” is tossed around. Jamie wrote a wonderful (and much more eloquent) post on this subject of home.
Maybe I’ll always be a nomad, because that feels okay to me–I can’t imagine never having travel be a major focus in my life.
And maybe, I’ll find a place I want to settle in, and I’ll be okay with that too.
In the meantime, I’m going to keep playing Imagine If I Lived Here…because why not?
Do you want to live everywhere, or do you have a place that will always be home?
This is letter I for the A to Z Blogging Challenge. Some of these letters are kind of hard! Just wait until Q and X, I guess…
