Traveling

For years while living in my little bitty home town in Texas, I wanted to travel. When you live in an isolated town of less than two thousand people, you pretty much want to travel anywhere. 

I was ten years old the first time I got to travel out of state. It was to pick up my step-sister in Tuscaloosa, Alabama because she was too young to fly by herself. 

Tuscaloosa! In Alabama! 

Oh my GOSH, I was excited! We got to drive through other exotic locales on the way, -- like Shreveport, Louisiana and Jackson, Mississippi! 

When I was sixteen, the speech team in high school had the opportunity to attend a week-long workshop at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. The speech teacher mentioned that it probably wasn’t worth the money to go since Muncie, Indiana wasn’t the most exciting place to visit.

I remember thinking, “Are you kidding me? I would LOVE to go to Muncie, Indiana!”

I did end up getting to travel. I went to New York City and Washington D.C. – twice – during high school. I went to England a few years after that. I was fortunate to have lived in New York and Toronto for a few years.

But now, I really have no desire to travel. I really don’t. 

Here are some reasons why.

Nowadays, we have the internet. Even a kid in my little bitty home town in Texas can google just about anywhere he’d like to visit. So can I. 

Sure, there are some places I’d like to see. I’d like to visit North Korea. Really, I would. Nobody gets to visit North Korea. It’s such a secret society so that’s why I’d find it really fascinating to visit. 

But I don’t want to fly for sixteen hours. I’m tall and even a three hour flight is about all I can handle comfortably. 

I’m older and just don’t have the energy for such things. I don’t want to spend thousands of dollars and sixteen hours in an airplane to visit Pyongyang. I just don’t. 

And here’s another thing. I live in a pretty fantastic city as it is. I no longer live in a little bitty town in Texas; a town that was boring compared to exciting places like Tuscaloosa and Muncie. I’m fortunate enough to live in a place that millions of tourists want to come to. I don’t need to go anywhere now. 

I have to go to Washington D.C. for work in a few weeks. Ho hum. I hope the hotel has room service so I don’t have to actually go anywhere while I’m there. 

So, I think my traveling days are over. 

Maybe I’ll drive down to Muncie for the weekend just to see what I missed when I was sixteen.