WANDERLUST

I love to travel. I always have, maybe handed down from family car trips in the paneled station wagon as a kid, traveling across the country with a map spread across my lap. I was the “navigator,” and to this day keep an atlas, that relic. Many people like to go back each year to the special places they’ve been, and I do that, too, but my passion is to explore. I want to go almost everywhere, unless it’s too dangerous, and despite that I’ve been to some places few Americans are willing to go: Ethiopia, Bulgaria, Borneo and Colombia, to name a few. I recognize that it’s easier to do this if you’re a guy. I recognize, too, the selfishness that’s a part of it: having the time, resources and willingness to burn fossil fuel to travel the globe, mostly for your own enjoyment. But the other side is the experience, and the broadening of one’s mind—so essential, for a writer, and really, for almost everyone. If you experience other places and cultures, sometimes there’s a bit more willingness to see things from the other side. People are almost always welcoming, and they’re also just people.

 A personal top five (some before they became less safe for Americans):

 ·       Angel Falls, Venezuela

·       The Citadel in Aleppo, Syria

·       Botswana

·       Uyuni Salt Flats, Bolivia

·       Rovinj, Plitvice National Park and Hvar, Croatia

 Give it a shot! While you still can.