Why I Will Always Be A Traveller

My love for travelling started at an early age… and I remember the very first long-haul family vacation to Antigua!

I particularly remember how much I loved the journey, the buckled seat belt that clicked in with ease… little pear flavoured sweets to suck, alleviating my “ear-popping” and views that took you away from the cloudy weather at home, to a blue sky where you could see right up into the deepest blue of the stratosphere! It was, and still is a magical experience!

I recall pressing my face against the airplane window for what felt like hours, until my parents organised a big surprise – they had kindly asked the captain if I could go and sit in the cockpit and the captain, once we were on our way, agreed! I sat in awe of all the “robotic” buttons, instruments and all the things the pilot was telling me about speed… he pointed out lots of other planes that seemed to be racing alongside us and let me shake his hand. You have no idea how lucky and excited I feel to have experienced that!

From that moment, I knew I wanted to be a pilot! It was to be my life dream but as fate would have it, I’m colour-blind and I found out that my colour-blindness prohibited me from ever reaching my goal. I still long to be a pilot… It’s a life ambition that has never truly gone away but I have now channelled my energy into things I can achieve and aspire towards – travelling!

Although I have never been able to be a pilot, I still have a romantic idea of being able to hop on a plane and being whisked to a place that seems so distant – but as I have grown older (which doesn’t necessarily come with maturity 🙂 ) I realise that my desire to travel has been about new experiences…

My experiences are very important to me, from the very exciting; like whale watching in Iceland, skiing in the Austrian Alps and heading to Maya Bay in Thailand to more subtle, but no less important, the experience of being able to enjoy places like eating Moussaka In Samos, taking a small catamaran with my Mum in Barbados (while we were both scared senseless and literally being thrown all across the deck).

These experiences were made by sharing…. with my loved ones & friends and it’s one of the primary reasons why I blog about travel, to share and learn through experience.

I have come to realise that each and every person is a traveller in their own unique way, we all take journeys, either; figuratively, symbolically or of course, literally and It doesn’t need to involve a flight… Travelling is ultimately about the experience.

I still want to be a pilot, don’t get me wrong, but now I truly appreciate and understand how important my experience of places truly makes me a traveller.