"We fling ourselves
halfway around the globe not to fall apart but to come together, to create new
patterns of meaningfulness" - Eric Weiner
A lot of people travel and go abroad not only in a search
for some huge amazing experience to see and accomplish things they never have before,
but I think underneath all of that there’s a bigger, more important picture. I
think most people have a moment when they’re just itching to get
out of wherever it is in their life they’re currently feeling trapped or stuck. Everyone at one point or another, whether it's at rock bottom, out of boredom with their current life, or just dissatisfaction with themselves or their outcomes, feels the need to find themselves and what is important and meaningful to them. More than anything the desire to "get away" is associated with being able to free the mind and get back to our roots and our true selves. The urge to go see the world and really find yourself can become almost unbearable. People crave traveling the world for the sense of freedom, spontaneity, adventure, and most importantly: for the escape.
Maybe I can’t speak for everyone, but growing up in the
suburbs of Philadelphia I was born with a feeling inside of me that could not
be squelched that I needed to get away from the northeast and see just what there is to see; there had to be bigger and better
places to live, there was so much I needed to see and do. I acted on these desires to
abandon ship impulsively last summer when I was feeling at a breaking point. I
was working at the same summer job I had had for three years. I felt stuck, drained and like my life was on repeat. All I needed and wanted was more stimulation and a change of scenery. So, extremely
impulsively, I bought a ticket to Dallas with one of my best friends and took
off for what ended up being one of the best weeks of my life.
After experiencing this taste of reckless spontaneity and adventure and knowing I was heading to
Australia in the spring I had nothing but the highest of hopes for my next journey. Australia is all I could have ever imagined and
more. The people are wonderful, the weather is mostly beautiful, I have had the
opportunity to be a part of so many unbelievable and unforgettable experiences,
I have made such amazing new best friends and I have seen some of the most
surreal, stunning sights. That being said, I realize that until this point I was always certain I would flee the
US, or at least the northeast, as soon as I possibly could. What I have come to find is that for every time any of us
have sat back on the beach of some exotic island and said to ourselves, “I could
be happy here,” we are lost in the moment of beauty and relaxation and haven’t
fully thought through that statement. It is not a place that will produce
happiness, it is our outlook, mindset, inner peace, and circumstances. I have
been a true offender of thinking happiness was always waiting somewhere else;
somewhere far away that was exciting, hot, and by the ocean. Perhaps this was
always the dreamer in me, or perhaps it was an immature outlook. People associate vacations with escaping because in going to a new location you can literally leave all your worries and problems behind, release your stress and be whoever you want to be in this new place; essentially, you have the chance to completely start over. If everyone decided to up and move to their escape destinations, eventually the daily stressors of life and the reality of happiness would sink in and suddenly the escape would just become the next place everyone was looking to get away from.
I am happier here in Australia than I have been maybe in my
whole life, but when I look around I realize it’s so similar in so many ways that at any point
I could very well be in the US. My happiness is a direct reflection of the
revelations I have experienced, the personal growth I have achieved, the
realizations of what I want and expect out of life, the recognition of and getting
back to what’s important to me, and the attainment of peace of mind all in conjunction with a sense of freedom and
adventure that has cultivated inside of me. Although I feel happiness is not
location based, my isolation came at a necessary time in my life and has helped
me to achieve improvements in my life and in myself. Although happiness might not be related to where you are in the world, if there is one thing I will take away from Australia permanently, it is a new appreciation for home and the familiar.
More than anything I love to travel because of the thrill of
the unknown and of new experiences. I absolutely would love to live in
Australia, but if that was based on a search for happiness and convincing myself that the
place for me was anywhere but here, I’ve come to realize it would be time to reevaluate. You can only run from your realities for so long. I could very well be happy in Philadelphia; it’s where I have
had some of the happiest and most memorable times of my life, because that’s
where my life is. I could be happy anywhere, I realize now, if given time to
adjust and recognize a new life.
I think everyone absolutely has to get out
into the world to travel and step out of their comfort zone or safety bubble of
home. There is too much to see. I’ve seen the opera houses in Sydney, JUST like
in Finding Nemo. I’ve kissed one of the Three Sisters in the Blue Mountains.
I’ve relaxed on the #6 most beautiful beach in the world. I’ve seen the Twelve
Apostles along the Great Ocean Road. I’ve overlooked the entire lit up city of
Melbourne from the highest point in the whole Southern Hemisphere.
I guess what
I’m saying is everyone does need to leave their roots, to see what is out there
and what they’re missing, even if it's just to make sure and to be satisfied with where they are in life. We cannot escape our ways into happiness, but rather find ourselves and happiness is sure to follow. Everyone deserves the time to discover themselves and their happy place. Home and happiness should not be determined by where we are, but rather who we're with, what we're doing with our lives, our state of mind and our ability to change and help ourselves. I realize now home could be anywhere in the world as long as I had my friends and loved ones. But I think a lot of us will find that
our happy place is exactly where we started, where our families did everything
they could to establish a good, grounded life for us. And I realize I’m no longer
running from that, even if I do end up living far, far away from the freezing
winters of the Northeast. I at least now know the amazing adventures that are out there waiting for me and there can always be another journey, but also that I can always return home to
Philadelphia, where it’s not always sunny, but that’s what it will always be to
me: home.
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