The "Travel Itch"
For as long as I can remember, I’ve had the “Travel Itch” - the yearning to see new places and experience new things.
My siblings and I grew up amidst a range of global influences. With a father who grew up between Kenya and Uganda, and a mother who spent some precious and formative years of her life in Egypt, we were engrained early on with a curiosity of the world … and my parents worked hard to embrace and foster that curiosity by exposing us to as much of the world as they were able to.
My parents were very into the “spend your money on experiences, not things” phenomenon; if there was money in the pot, we traveled. We may not have had the cutest clothes or the fanciest things (hence our outfits), but we had something else - something less tangible but much more valuable in my mind, and it shaped us into who we are today. My parents gave us what I call the “Travel Itch.”
The Great Wall, Beijing, China 2002
Every time we explored somewhere new, I left with an even greater curiosity.
I wanted to do more, learn more, meet more people, see more places. It’s almost like an insatiable desire to explore (maybe one of the reasons I’ve never been great at sitting still for long periods of time).
The “Travel Itch” sticks with me today; it’s one of the reasons I felt drawn to this life in the Caribbean, to this path that differs from the typical route that many privileged, white 20-somethings from Connecticut, like myself, followed. For me, the whole move to New York, work that 9-5 office job, hustle, and climb ladders life felt uninteresting and prescribed. (No shame to those who chose that path, it just wasn’t for me.)
Monotony scares me; I wanted a life that would not only allow me to explore, but would encourage adventure and reward creativity. So, for now, island-dweller / home-builder / fixer-upper / snorkeler / hiker / adventurer / mama / and (hopefully, one day) world traveler is the life that makes me feel happiest and most fulfilled.
Thanks, Mom and Dad, for encouraging the atypical path, and for giving me this unrelenting desire, this “itch,” to explore and discover. May there be LOTS more of this in our futures.
