My Hopeless Addiction

I have a confession to make: I'm hopelessly addicted to travel writing in all its shapes and forms. Whether it's poorly written articles on Medium, or travel books recommended by other famous travel authors, I love reading about someone's fish out of water experience in another country or on a trail somewhere. There's just something so intensely satisfying about experiencing the world through someone's eyes that way. And obviously, that goes doubly so for travel documentaries and tv shows.

Even as I write this, I'm sitting on a train from Portland, Oregon to Vancouver, British Columbia and reading about Vietnam, a country that I've visited a few different times and can't wait to get back to. I think it really comes down to the fact that travel wakes something up in us. It gets us outside of our comfort zone, has us try new and confusing things, and we come out better for it.

It's funny, but this trip to the Pacific Northwest has proven so far to be exactly what I needed, and I couldn't quite put my finger on the fact that this was what I was missing. It's so easy to get locked down in the busyness of the things that surround our day to day, and it wears you down. But just a few days in a new place, with all the new foods and smells and experiences that those days bring is enough to revitalize me.

Do I ever see myself as one of those travel writers that I look up to? Probably not, but it doesn't matter. Being able to absorb their books, posts, and videos while on vacations and trips of my own is enough.