Travel More – You Don’t Have to Settle Down

Walking Thoughts

To settle down or to travel more? These are the questions that keep me up at night. As I walk around the neighborhood tonight I see a lot of people watching TV. Passing by on the sidewalk I watch the blue glow of the screen and bright flicking lights through the window panes as it switches to commercials. As of late I haven’t watched a lot of TV, nor have I seen any movies. Life feels like a blissful blur for almost about ten years now as I’ve roamed around the country working and exploring. Still as I stop and watch one viewer who particularly seems to be completely engrossed in this film I can’t help and wonder which is the right path in life.

Initial Reaction – Travel More

My immediate answer to this question is always answered by two words, travel more. Never stop exploring says my mind, the world holds so many treasures and to not see as many as possibly is merely an insult to life itself. Yet the farther I roam the more distance family and friends seem to become. Plus some parts of travel almost appear like a dreadful chore after you’ve done it so many times. “Travel more”, is this really the right answer?

And then before I can answer, I see the man on the couch watching his evening television. A man in a grand yet semi-modest home who presumably appears to have lived here for quite a decent period of his life. Perhaps a man who has settled down long ago and has planted himself here to become part of a community. Maybe this will be the last house he ever owns.

The Conclusion

Finally I decide to keep walking again. I turn the corner starting my return home knowing I will be leaving it in a few weeks. Yet again I’m embarking on more travel for another job in another city hundreds of miles away. And I’m leaving a home I’ve lived in for 5 years that holds so many memories. But as I drift back to my own reality the words, travel more, just feels like the right answer. For better or worse, possibly the latter, my fate feels bound to travel and a desire to never settle. Even being in the second half of my thirties I still feel as if there is so much more I need to see and understand.