Every second of every day offers an opportunity…an opportunity to look at your current situation as an adventure or a burden. I have found in my years of traveling, backpacking and exploring this beautiful land of ours that there really are two types of people….those that live to wander and those that just don’t as they are content being and doing just what they are. One isn’t bad and one isn’t better, they just are what they are. It is just important to know which you are and accept it with all that it comes with.
So how do you know if you are someone that truly lives to explore, to take risks, that looks at situations including people that come in front of you as beautiful opportunities to become a better version of you? Here are some characteristics I believe that separate the two:
- You naturally make your vehicle your sanctuary over time and part of your identity because you spend so much time adventuring in it.
- You’re beyond excited when you get to lay on the floor and open a map, offering the unknown
- The rigor of monotony is more terrifying to you than dying.
- You start planning your next trip as soon as you return home from one.
- Your Facebook, Instagram and Twitter photos and updates are saturated with places you want to to go rather than those that you have already explored.
- You know how much food, by weight, you would need for a journey lasting a few days
- When hiking, you are constantly looking around rather than looking down at your feet.
- You seem to never want to be where you currently are, but you couldn’t wait to get there before you were and then realize how amazing it is to be where you are!
- Day dreaming about your next adventure is what keeps your spirit from sinking.
- When going someplace new, you hate taking the same roads to and from your destination…even if it adds hundreds of miles just so you can go down a different path.
- The risk of dying driving on the way to the grocery store to get milk is more disturbing than the risk of being alone summiting a mountain.
Do any of these sound familiar? If so, you may have wanderlust pumping through veins. What is a person to do when you have this incredible affliction? You may find that many people don’t get you, don’t understand how you can either take your family all over the country or even leave your family behind so you can go on solo adventures. Rest assured, my beautiful gypsy spirited friend, that you are not alone. Don’t stop dreaming even if people don’t get you…don’t wait to go on that next adventure that is calling your soul. Life is passing by so very quickly. What would you like to remember when your time comes to leave this earth? How about all those hours you put in sitting at your cubicle feeling like there has to be more to your life or all those glacial lakes you got to rest your weary eyes on standing beside your best friend or loved one?
If you are a wanderer, you already have your next ‘glacial lake’ in mind and are thinking about how to get there. Now….get off your butt and go see it!!!
“Jobs fill your pocket. Adventures fill your soul.” — Jaime Lyn Beatty
Wandering with Owl 