Today is an important day. It marks my six month anniversary with traveling. Ironically, today I am also handing in my two weeks notice. Fourteen short days from now I will be fastening my seatbelt in the airplane that will fly me back to the Land of the Free (bathrooms).
Of course, I’m a whirlwind of emotions. One side of me is furiously trying to stop time while the other is wishing I could skip the next two weeks so I don’t have to experience the pain of saying goodbye to Europe, to new friends, to the dream I’ve been living in.
When I was working in a restaurant in Albania I met a couple who had been traveling for four months. “Somewhere along the way,” they told me, “it has stopped being a vacation and started being a way of life”. I couldn’t agree more. Long rides in busses, sleeping in strangers’ homes, communicating without English… those things feel so natural to me; as if it’s the way I’ve always lived my life. I’ve gotten to the point where familiarity is my most unfamiliar feeling. Where the US seems almost more foreign than where I am now.
And in some ways that’s how I know it’s time to move on. When I started my trip I wondered if I would ever tire of looking at Europe’s magnificent cathedrals. Now I pass by most of them without even a hint of curiosity. In fact, much of Europe is starting to bore me. Museums must try harder to be interesting. Scenic views must pose better to impress me. Strangers must elevate their small talk to engage me. I’m finding it’s much more difficult, in general, for anything to evoke a sense of awe in me.
Some may read this and think I am crazy, or ungrateful or wasting this experience. I know I might have thought the same things 6 months ago. But I see things differently now… I started traveling to branch out, to experience different cultures and gain perspective. I did that. In fact, I’m so full of experiences it’s hard to appreciate new ones. I need time for all of the things I’ve seen, all the lessons I’ve learned to settle like tea leaves in a pot. I need to be still for a while. I need to see how my new perspectives will infuse into my life in the States. In fact, staying longer in Europe right now could only be described as overindulgence.
I left home to do something big and now the biggest thing I can do is to go home.
I’m writing this blog post in a cozy little creperie in France. “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” is playing on the radio and I’m laughing to myself because I used to hate that song (when you live in Kansas, your life tends to become a little over-saturated with The Wizard of Oz references) but right now it strikes me differently. I hear the cry of a girl wishing for adventure and it reminds me of silent wishes that used to make me weary with longing. I can hear my heart six months ago belting out ‘birds fly over the rainbow, why can’t I?” and I want to give my past self a glimpse of where I am now.
I want to tell her, “You made it over the rainbow. You saw the colors. Now you’re coming home and bringing them with you. And it’s great, because you’ll learn that life is an adventure no matter where you are.”
So this is my two weeks notice. I’m quitting Europe for a time, but I’ll come back someday and let her change me all over again.
Travel Like Bird 
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