For as long as I can remember, I have always loved traveling. Perhaps there’s just airport coffee flowing through my veins. My dad works on airplanes, and I am quite jealous, come to think of it, that he gets to go off and see airplanes every day.

Airplanes by themselves aren’t all that intriguing, I understand that, but just think about what they stand for, all the possibilities and peanuts they contain. A couple being reunited, someone moving, someone leaving their hometown for the very first time, just a fragile human seeking a fresh start. Every time I step on a plane, I know I am not alone, and I love it.

Even though I am traveling alone, there are a hundred other people going on a hundred different adventures around me. The world is an open book, even though some of the pages are stuck together, some have been torn out, some translations are missing, it’s still a book. I believe as characters in this book, although temporary, it is our job to read as much of this book as possible, to keep exploring, help the universe keep writing. I know not everyone sees every trip as an adventure though, and this is rather unfortunate. A

business trip can be dull, unstimulating, even dare I say, boring. But think about what you are doing: you are traveling, playing dress up, giving new ideas, cultivating the ones already in existence. Any way you look at it, any time you take advantage of not being held captive, you are furthering the capacity of yourself. Blowing up your balloon of experience.

I have no desire to stay in one place. I have this huge, crippling fear that I won’t get to see it all. I know I am the temporary type of infinite, and ultimately, so is the world, but it is still all beyond me. The world is like a charming prince, dark and mysterious, and I’m just a damsel in distress, begging to get to know him, trying my hardest to fall in love.

And I know you’re not supposed to try to fall in love, you’re supposed to just let it happen, but I’ve never been one to do things the way they are supposed to be done. As a woman, I’m supposed to be courted, pursued, so eventually, I can get married, and have an extraordinarily daring soul to go on this great pursuit with, maybe make the earth jealous of the other man in my life.

But I am not waiting to be courted by the earth, for I do not desire to marry him. I do not have an end goal in mind when it comes to my relationship with the earth. Is this tacky and promiscuous?

Perhaps. But remember, I do not desire to do things they way they are designed to be done.

I do not wish to marry by age 22, have four kids, alternating boy girl boy girl, of course, own a pet, watch HGTV every night, and meal prep all of my children’s elementary school lunches. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this, and if I just described your dream life, I am so incredibly happy for you and I wish you nothing but the best in your pursuit of being super mom.

Frankly, I know I’m not “super” anything, and I really don’t want to waste time pretending I am and acknowledge the myth that having a color coordinated everything means you have your life together. I am literally a vapor, my life and everything in it. I am temporary dust, and to dust I shall return. This could happen at any given moment, and it’s almost a race to me. How much of the earth can I see before I have to leave it, how many concerts can I go to before I start to lose my hearing, how many new people can I meet before my eyesight starts to deteriorate?

I just think it would be unfair to limit myself to one house, one job, one routine. I don’t want to miss a thing. The earth is this grand, vast adventure, and I want to be that too. If I end up being poor and an unpopular opinion, in and out of jobs, but my passport is falling apart at the seams, I have no complaints. It is a miracle in and of itself that I am alive, and I intend to live my entire life, just as that, alive. I wish to feel alive, I want to be alive to the fullest. Nowhere is home to a nomad, and I would be a fool to walk away from living like I have everything left to see and experience.

I understand this might not sit comfortably with you, and I also understand not everyone has the longing to travel, to be everywhere. These words come from the bottom of my heart, and if they confuse you, I am sorry but I cannot be all things to all people. However, I do wish that each and every single person find a home, even if that means not necessarily having one.

From one wanderlusting soul to another, I will leave you with a quote from Roman Payne, a personal favorite: “Never did the world make a queen of a girl who hides in houses and dreams without traveling.”