While I’m enjoying being employed with the official job title of “writer” for the first time in my life (aside from my freelancing work, of course) I get insanely jealous whenever I hear people talking about their travel plans. This is how I know I’m not finished with wandering this world – not even close.
I can almost feel the air wicking the sweat off my skin, can almost smell the bin lang flowers drifting down from the mountainside. I can see the rice fields and water bamboo growing alongside the roads, hear the street dogs barking angrily after me as I pass through their territories.
While enjoying a father’s day drink at Chicago’s Signature Lounge with my dad on Sunday, I eavesdropped on the conversation of the two twenty-something girls sitting next to me. One girl appeared to be a college student visiting from Asia, the other, a slightly arrogant sounding Chicagoan who was bragging about all the countries she’d been able to visit on her employer’s dime.
I found myself wondering what she did for a living, as the green-eyed monster reared its head.
I literally get a pain in my heart, feel really envious, and at the same time, inspired, when I hear stories about others’ travels. Even if, in my opinion, a lot of travel bloggers now seem to have the same escape-from-the-cubicle stories. While I’m (mostly) happy for them, I look forward to the day when I’m roaming the globe again myself. Even it takes me until I’m 60, it will happen.
In the meantime, I’ll combat my wanderlust by continuing to share stories of my life in Asia. And by wandering around the Midwest and writing about my adventures in the U.S. Corn Belt.
For now, I will be content.
Summer in the Windy City brings beautiful sights such as this …
There is hope for those of us battling our green-eyed travel monsters.
I also try to remind myself how blessed I am to have landed a job where I write for a living. It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do (aside from travel, of course!). Though there are days where I just want to take off and join all the other travel bloggers out there rebelling against a life of conformity (and I say this with the utmost respect!), I realize I am where I need to be for the time being. The present builds the stepping stones which will lead to the future. A future I suspect, that will be full of adventure.
Reminding myself I am exactly where I need to be makes life more inspiring.
I hope this perspective will help others too.