Little Acorn, Big World

For the past three months, I have been on the road as a nomad in Europe. After leaving the United States in February for Oslo, what had been a loose plan for a six month trip through Europe and Asia was now a concrete stream of events that would change my life for the better. And today, it's only halfway done.
As a world nomad, it's important not to carry more than you need. Wearing 10kg on your back for several hours can get pretty painful. As a result, travel continuously teaches you what is necessary, and what is fluff. That extra t-shirt? Fluff. Those postcards you brought from home? Fluff. The ring your partner gave you so you'll remember him on the road? Important, irreplaceable, and yet, still fluff. It only took one professional thief in Paris to teach me that everything I had on me was simply extra weight.
One of the best things about traveling the world is that you can predict, plan, book, investigate, and form an (educated) opinion on what it will be like and yet be constantly surprised. A google image search will get you to any major landmark in the world instantly and for free, but it is nothing compared to being there in person and experiencing a new place in the context of its culture and history. And there is of course the real "Travel Treasure," ubiquitous and unpredictable, which can change the entire course of a trip and a life: the people.
Without a doubt, the most important thing you can bring with you while traveling is the connections you make with others. These friendships can be fleeting (like when I hitched a ride in Foix in a van full of small French school children who wanted to know why my French sounded so weird and sent me off with pieces of candy for good luck) or lasting and powerful (as when I met a honeymooning couple from Tokyo on a Greek island in 2013 and they helped me practice Japanese every week). Everyone has their own lesson to teach and learn: in Norway, I stayed with a family who taught me about their country's philosophy on prison systems; in Spain, a group of new friends passed on the idea of "sobremesa," which denotes the importance of conversation over the food on the table; and in Ireland, I learned that even swimming a river in winter and nearly dying of hypothermia is classified as "good craíc."
Seeing churches, feats of architecture, and grand boulevards can move one to the point of tears, but the real treasure lies in the company of others and the wonderfully permanent impression they leave.