"longing for far-off places"

It was one of these days. One of the utterly standard days in the office, when I realized I was getting old. The reason was not that I discovered my first grey hair. It was not that people around me started to get married and became parents. The reason was as simple as the word "no" that made me old. No, I didn't want to go hiking this weekend. No, I couldn't see the fun in flying to London for a weekend getaway. Even no, I didn't want to go the park on a Sunday afternoon. All these tiny, puny noes accumulated and became something greater. They made me old. Lazy and unwilling. It was me, refusing to continue on the trial of finding myself. Traveling is not just about a change of scenery, it is not just about seeing a different city for a few hours. It is about learning about yourself, getting to know yourself.

Didn't I learn about myself, when I was breaking through the foggy mountain top in Switzerland? When I spent the day on a canoe in North Hampshire, on a ferry in the Mediterranean Sea, or on a boat on the thousand lakes of Canada? Most certainly I learned about all the bones in my body when I was sleeping in a tent in Hungary, on the bare ground of a public park in Spain or the concrete porch of a hut on top of a vineyard in France. Traveling is about opportunities to get to know your limits. And expand them. You won't get to these limits, if you stay on your couch, lazy and content. If you don't strive to suffer in the desert in California, smell the tanners in Morocco, listen to whispering campfires in Maine or Germany, taste the oceans or meet dozens of people from other countries with their different cultures, opinions and experiences. Traveling is about leaving your comfort zone and re-emerging stronger, wiser and happier than before.

It was on this very day, when I was sitting in my office, that I started to say yes again. I said yes to trudge through mud and rain, climbing over rocks and fighting through forests. I said yes, once again, to go on a hunt. A hunt through cities and their airports, through the countryside and everything in between. A hunt about myself, about others; about sharing and caring. About getting to know this world more, this wonderful world, it's people and it's beautiful nature. To value, to extend my horizon, to be a nomad of this world. And every time when I will be back, the impressions wear off faster than hoped for. Then the Fernweh will start again. And I will say yes, once more, and pack my backpack. To travel.