wanderlust...

Every year, as summer starts to emerge out of it's spring-skin, I get that itch-- it's in my hands and my feet and my eyeballs, and it means I want to go somewhere I've never been, return somewhere I haven't been in a while, see new things, smell new air, taste new foods. There's a reason they call it wanderlust-- it's a lot the same as wanting a person, only bigger, wider. It's a life thing.

(Borrowed from Justin Gaynor, without permission, but gratefully)

See, when we were growing up, summer was when we Went Places. I'm sure it was a huge pain in the ass getting three young children to do what they were supposed to do and behave so far away from home, but the result was a constant nagging idea that I should be going somewhere. Thats summer is for travelling. That there's still things I haven't seen, and I need to see them now, before they're gone or changed. And since we moved back to the States, I haven't been hardly anywhere-- a quick Study Abroad to London years ago, an even quicker trip to Canada by way of Ohio, a few jaunts back to Orlando, a trip to DC and New Jersey-- and none of them where really right. I want long-term trips.

(Borrowed from BeloBlog, without permission, but gratefully)

See, I have amazing friends. The lovely Rah-Chelle takes many of her summers and goes away on adventures. She's thinking of going to a Kibbutz in Israel soon, and she's gone to a commune in the woods and spent a year at sea. And I'm so equally enthralled and jealous that I could burst.

Also, I know these two wonderful brothers that have a boat apeice (well, one has a boat, one is shopping for a new boat since the old one sank), and they live there. They grew up on boats. They sail like sea gypsies in the summers, as often as they can, for as long as the money holds out.

And H is going to China for a whole year to learn the language and hopefully find a job. A whole year in a foreign country! The luxury stuns me.

And I want to do it too.

(Borrowed from Flickr, with gratitude)

Here's my plan. Not only will I entirely give up day-working within the next five years (really, closer to four now), but I'll find a way to save enough money that I can take summers off and travel, even if I have to do it on the cheap. I won't do any work but the work I want to do, which will likely be writing, and I'll talk my friends into letting me crash on their distant floors, travel in their many vehicles as they go somewhere else than here. I'll go to other countries. I'll get new stamps in my passport. I'll participate in semesters abroad and at sea, or I'll join experience groups for a month at a time or a week at a time. I'll be going to school at the same time, but I'll slot the trips in around the semesters-- and I'll just go. I'll find new places to be. I'll come home with a new appreciation of my own space.

I'm most at home in airports. I feel most like myself when I'm on the road. It's time I got back to who I am.