Title translation: My destiny is walking...I'm passing through this fleeting world.
Ever since I have gotten back to the States from Asia, all I've been able to think about is traveling. I came away from SEAS suddenly awakened to how beautiful this world is, and marveling at how blessed I am to not only be a part of it, but to be able to witness so much of it. When you turn on the news and all you hear about the world outside your backdoor is political strife, genocide, famine, and bombings, it's really, really easy to forget that places like these exist:
This intense desire to roam the world and see and touch and listen and taste everything has sort of consumed me. I think the Taj Mahal is the most to blame for this, and to this day I'm not sure why.
It's a TOMB, for crying out loud. DEAD PEOPLE (or what remains of them after 500 years or so) are inside, which should make the fact that millions of people wander around inside and take photos kind of weird and creepy. But when you are there, none of that matters. You see the nearly immaculate white marble against a turquoise sky and you just want to cry. Touching the stones, you can still feel Shah Jahan's love and passion for his (then newly-deceased) wife. Knowing that Love built this structure instead of Ambition or Greed makes it infinitely more beautiful. You literally just want to stand there and to thank God that you are alive and have retinas to witness something so magnificent.
Ever since last summer, I knew that I was determined to see and experience more of what this great, big world had to offer. (Hopefully starting with London next spring!) I realized that I didn't want to spend my life rooted down in one place for all of my days. I mean, obviously, I would like to have a place where I can receive my mail and put my stanky feet wheresoever my heart desires and all of that, but I don't want to spend all of my life there. I really hope that travel is somehow a part of my destiny.
Oh, by the way, the title of this post comes from this song, "Gitana" or ("Gypsy") by Shakira. The song is in Spanish and the video is a bit PG-13, as a heads up, but it's one of my favorite songs so you should give it a listen.
Or the (less impressive) English version for those of you who don't speak Spanish.
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