Beyond Escape: Why I Travel

It was a quiet day on the streets of Cuéllar when a man stopped me on the street. "Hey, Texas!" he yelled, recognising me from the day before. Over the next fifteen minutes, he talked to me about my travels, my experiences in Spain, and his views on bullfights, Spanish history, and the cultures in Spain's small towns. "The small towns are the essence of Spain, and their festivals are the most authentic," he told me. I couldn't argue; that was the exact reason I was in Cuéllar in the first place (to experience the culture and history behind Spain's oldest encierros). What I found, though, was more than just bulls and fiestas. I experienced fear, excitement, disappointment, religious awe, and medieval history in Cuéllar's storied streets. As I prepared to leave for my next city, I couldn't help but think to myself, "This is why I travel."

People ask me all the time why I travel. It's not a cut-and-dry answer nor a sound-bite. My reasons are diverse and personal, at the same time simple and difficult to explain. Yet, people look up to me as a seasoned traveller, and many times have sought my input or assistance on starting their own journeys. My advice is always the same: have a why. But what is my why? Why did I leave in the first place? Why do I keep going? Why do I go to certain places? Before I can help anyone else, I have to answer these questions for myself.

Overlooking the Hamilton Road from a cliff in Iraqi Kurdistan

Recalibrate My Compass. I keep no secrets about why I left everything behind to pursue a full-time, long-term travel lifestyle. A relationship that ended a long time ago absolutely wrecked my personal life, and in my career, I had grown weary of staring the worst parts of the world in the face every day. The combination of those two caused sleepless nights, depression, immense stress, and more. Something had to give, and when the opportunity to completely change directions in life presented itself, I took it. More than two years after making that decision, I have zero regrets, and everyone back home can see how much happier I am having moved on in the most literal sense. Sometimes I think about going back to a high-stakes career in the security sector, but when I remember how bad that was for me mentally and emotionally, I dismiss those thoughts without regret.

Broaden My Political Horizons. Like many Americans, I get stuck in my political bubble. We've earned that from our role as the dominant diplomatic, security, economic, and technological force in the world. However, there is more to the global perspective than American dominance, and learning from other nationalities and viewpoints has been extremely rewarding. Some of my views have been changed, while others have been hardened, but all are more informed by the conversations on hostel couches, city streets, and living room debates. I've witnessed the real-world consequences of climate change, suffered from having the "wrong" visa in my passport, and come to realise that American values are falling out of favour in more traditional cultures around the world.

Experience the Random Tales. Travel isn't always about deeper meaning, and the quirky experiences are just as endearing as the profound realisations. I'll never forget tying down a bus's emergency exit with my bungee cords when it blew off on a highway in Egypt, getting stranded in a small Spanish town at two in the morning during one of the annual festivals, or getting scammed out of a thousand dollars at a bar in Amman. When life on the road doesn't go according to plan, that's when the most fun happens and stories you will tell for a lifetime take place.

Find New Friends. Relationships on the road form fast and they last forever. Travellers understand life on the road in ways that people back home can't, and the shared experiences form bonds that transcend borders. I still argue about politics with Jack from the UK, talk Guinness with Gav from Ireland, and share inside jokes with Laura from Canada (who now lives in Mexico). It's all part of the fun of travel, and something I think we need to learn from back home.

Reckon with Reality. Many have opinions, but few have experience. Some people hit the road to escape from life, but in my experience, travel confronts you with reality rather than removes you from it. Travellers talk about what's important to them, every region of the world is its own dynamic ecosystem, and social, political, and cultural shocks ripple across the globe. Sharing meals with Palestinians in Jordan deeply affected my views on the conflict between Gaza and Israel, watching the bullfights in Spain forced me to re-examine my views of morality with everyday choices, and confronting poverty in the jungles of Cambodia made me realise how fortunate I am to be born, live, and thrive in the United States. I may have left everything behind, but rather than find escapism, I became intimately familiar with the realities of the world in which we live.

Explore Religion. I had three goals when I left home: to write, to watch a bullfight, and to get better acquainted with religion. I succeeded in all three, and they often combined to form one, holistic encounter with faith, but I never expected how often I would confront religion across the world. Finding biblical sites, standing in mosques, and watching Buddhist funerary rituals have made me look deeper into the role religion plays in the world and in my own life, and I have built an entire expedition around discovering more.

Each excursion abroad brings with it unknown adventure and unexpected experiences. Like the conversation on the sidewalk in Cuéllar, I find a new reason to keep going and dive deeper with every destination. I've come to realise that travelling to accomplish some definite goal isn't for me; instead, it is all about the journey. Not just from airport to airport or country to country, but down the infinite paths individual experiences present for further exploration and deeper introspection. Travel isn't an escape from life; it's a collision with it.