I Don’t Travel To Run Away From Love, I Travel To Find It All Over Again

Someone asked me the other day if I travel as far as I do to run as far as I can from love. It was an interesting question, one that I honestly hadn’t gotten before, nor one I had thought much about.

At first, I had no idea how to answer, but now I do. So, Dear Anonymous, here is my answer…

I’m no stranger to heartbreak. I’ve definitely experienced my fair share of hurt and heartache, but if anything, it has forced me to believe in the good in the world. Kind of ironic, right? Getting hurt by the ones you know yet somehow able to place more hope and faith in a world you have yet to see or meet.

Knowing that I wasn’t going to let a bruised heart or past define me, I made a decision that allowed me to take on a new perspective when it came to finding love. For so long I had found my purpose and happiness in life by putting someone or something else first, never really giving myself the chance to put myself, my aspirations, or my passions first. I felt completely lost in my own skin, and the only way to find myself again was to chase the unknown—to find love in the unknown.

To be uncomfortable, afraid, and alone in order to become content, fearless, and fulfilled.

It was at this point that I made a decision to take on a new journey and find my heart again, to find my zest and appreciation for life again. This decision took me across the country and around the world to places I had never been but had always dreamed of. Starting over in new cities and countries gave me everything that I needed and longed for so many years to truly create a life that was destined to be unashamedly and unapologetically mine.

This decision shaped my passion and longing for so much more because, for the first time in my life, I was learning and understanding that love doesn’t have one definition, entity, or timeline. For the first time in my life, I was falling in love with something far greater than one person, place, or thing; I was falling in love with myself and this world. 

This decision to leave a world I knew and understood behind to chase adventure is the reason why I prefer the unknown, it is the reason why I travel and travel far. Because it is the reason why I continue to find love, again and again. With strangers, music, architecture, culture, life, and so much more.

So, Dear Anonymous, I don’t travel as far as I do to run as far as I can from love. I travel as far as I do to find love all over again. To give my love all over again. To allow my heart to fully repair all over again. To become inspired all over again. To believe in the good all over again. I travel as far as I do to find myself and so much more all over again.