10 Ways Falling In Love Is Different While You Are Traveling
1. You Don’t Know Anything About Anyone
Sometimes the best thing in the world is having no mutual friends with someone. There are no preconceived notions, no outside opinions and no prejudices. Everything you learn about that person is in the moment.
2. You Aren’t Influenced by Your Friends And Family
Yes, it can be incredibly lonely without your friends and family when you are away from home, but the upside is you are free to form your own opinion about everything. Until you are far away from home, you don’t fully realize how much your actions and opinions are shaped by what is familiar to you. Nobody expects you to be a certain way so you start molding yourself into the person you want to be – and it’s this new image of yourself that you both fall in love with.
3. Everything Is Heightened While You Are Traveling
Even the normal things you do on a daily basis are thrilling when you are traveling. There are weird foods at grocery store, the money is colorful and funny looking plus you have to listen so much harder to understand what people are saying to you. You’re incredibly aware of what is going on around you because it’s ten times harder to function on a daily basis. You experience so many more emotions and feel your brain working harder every single day. You’re more awake and aware of what you are experiencing in the moment, making already strong emotions like a crush or love even more intense.
4. The Expiration Date
Expiration dating is more honest but also much more dramatic. There are fewer games because you have a pretty good idea of when you are going to be separated, so you have to quickly figure out how much heartache is worth it. Everything is laid out on the table and every second of being together is lived to the fullest because you honestly don’t know if you will ever see this person again; but because of that, you have this entire panicking scenario in your head about this being the strongest you’ll ever feel about someone and then you’ll be lonely forever when you leave. But the sex is amazing.
5. The Recognition Of A Mutual Traveler
No matter how much of a stranger someone is, travelers always identify with each other on some basic level. You may not speak the same language, have any mutual friends or any real future together, but every person who is traveling is doing so because they want their eyes opened. They want to learn more about themselves and other people. If you have that in common with someone, the deep and emotional life discussions you have are unparalleled.
6. You Have So Much To Talk About
They don’t know your hometown, high school, foods, habits, TV shows, favorite phrases, sports, or anything. Every story about your life takes so much more effort and detail to describe because it’s so completely new to them. After a while you realize this person knows you better in some ways than your closest friends do.
7. Sexy Foreigner
Admit it, the accent and the mystery are part of the appeal.
8. The Memories You Create Together Are Unparalleled
While in Australia, my boyfriend and I hiked to the top of a waterfall to watch the sunset together, watched baby sea turtles hatch and took countless romantic walks on the beach. One of my good friends and her traveling boyfriend went to Bali together. How is a guy from Indiana supposed to compete with that?
9. You Believe It’s Real
Are we meant to be and that’s why I have always had this itch to travel? Was I meant to travel across the world to meet this man? We can make this work. Distance is nothing. I can move across the world.
10. You Believe You’re Crazy
Who am I kidding? I hardly know this guy. I’m not going to move across the world for love. I definitely am just crazy and trying to keep the dream of traveling alive. I hate being a girl.
And for the most part, every day is filled with this mess of conflicting thoughts. Then you return home, cry for weeks, feel sad for months and don’t know if you miss him or you miss traveling. Then you pick up the pieces of your life, move on, reestablish yourself and a year later you’re still wondering – was it real?