Traveling

I was reading Becca’s blog again, http://backyardtransliteration.blogspot.com/2009/03/spirit-in-skye.html, when something struck a chord: “The next year, my roommate would ask me whether, when I missed Scotland, I was longing for where I had been or who I had been when I was there, but I cannot unravel the one from the other.” This is something that I have been struggling with for a while.

Lately, I have had the urge to travel again. My first visit overseas took place the summer after my 6th grade year. We went to visit my uncle who was stationed in Belgium. My family and I visited 7 countries in four weeks. It was amazing! I still vividly remember the Alps, the concentration camp, the ice caverns, the salt mines, etc.

My next trip overseas had to wait for the summer before my senior year of college. This is the trip that changed me dramatically. Before I took this trip I had never been on a different continent without my family. At first I was afraid, but when my plane touched down in Rome, Italy I was too awed to be scared.

That entire trip, all 18 days, my shy demeanor vanished. In its place was someone who wasn’t afraid of the language barrier or traveling down an unknown path. Often times I was the one asking directions using stick figures, hand gestures, and very little Italian (very little Italian). I felt free and independent. No one knew me as the shy, awkward girl from southwestern Pennsylvania.

Now that I am back home, I yearn for that feeling of freedom again. I am itching to travel to the British Isles and see all the places I have read about in my studies of literature. I want to be that carefree, adventurous person that I was in Italy. Some places force us to step outside of our normal selves and take on new personas. Everyone needs to this from time to time.