About
It's been a long time since I published a blog post. I first started writing one when I was 16, I believe -- but I have no idea what happened to that blog. I was in Chile, studying abroad for the first time.
The second blog I started was my first (accidental) round the world trip, at 18. I was naive enough to just set off, no questions asked, to Guatemala, and Burma, and Germany, and back again to the States. Not enough money, but just enough foolishness to book a plane ticket and go.
I'm slightly older now, and finding that age has brought not travel wisdom but growing anxiety about where I am and where I'm headed. I'm more aware now of not just the hope of travel, but its dark side - the dangers, the lost opportunities, the monotony of the same conversation in the same hostel dorm room every few days. The often negative effect the travel industry has on the environment and local communities, and the way serial travelers participate in the vestiges of colonialism and late capitalism.
Not to say that this journey I'm on isnt a beautiful one - it is. I'm so lucky that this small body with its curious mind has arrived in so many corners of the world, and travelling solo has afforded me a level of self knowledge and independence that I wouldn't have otherwise. But more and more I've realized I need to be intentional about what kind of travel I am doing, and why.
So welcome. This is a travel blog, but its also a personal journal, a place to ruminate on souls met along the way and knowledge gained and lost, for political commentary and photography. For drawing and art, and above all, for tracking the creative process that is known as life.
The second blog I started was my first (accidental) round the world trip, at 18. I was naive enough to just set off, no questions asked, to Guatemala, and Burma, and Germany, and back again to the States. Not enough money, but just enough foolishness to book a plane ticket and go.
I'm slightly older now, and finding that age has brought not travel wisdom but growing anxiety about where I am and where I'm headed. I'm more aware now of not just the hope of travel, but its dark side - the dangers, the lost opportunities, the monotony of the same conversation in the same hostel dorm room every few days. The often negative effect the travel industry has on the environment and local communities, and the way serial travelers participate in the vestiges of colonialism and late capitalism.
Not to say that this journey I'm on isnt a beautiful one - it is. I'm so lucky that this small body with its curious mind has arrived in so many corners of the world, and travelling solo has afforded me a level of self knowledge and independence that I wouldn't have otherwise. But more and more I've realized I need to be intentional about what kind of travel I am doing, and why.
So welcome. This is a travel blog, but its also a personal journal, a place to ruminate on souls met along the way and knowledge gained and lost, for political commentary and photography. For drawing and art, and above all, for tracking the creative process that is known as life.
Comments
Post a Comment