Your Bag Is Overweight

One of the stressful aspects of travels the dreaded packing of the bags. The trips that I have been all too lucky to be able to journey on, this has got to be the one component of travel that isn’t all that fun. Although, it does ignite the feeling of total excitement because you know that soon you begin you adventure. The entire time packing the one statement that continually pops into my head while packing is, “Your bag is overweight,” as I add another article of clothing to the already stuffed suite case.

Before I travel anywhere I always look at the current weather of the area and the ten-day tentative report. That way I have some type of idea for the clothing to pack. This is the only research I allow myself to do prior to a trip. I like to experience the culture and life first hand without any biases or constructed thoughts. I believe taking an open mind anywhere you find yourself in life is key to emersion and true life changing experiences.

Besides an open mind being one the most important items I “pack” for the trip, I also bring my most meaningful item, my camera. This is my journaling. Through my lens of my camera I see the world in a different light. I get to really observe what is going on around me and document the experience.  It is truly only when I travel anymore that I am struck with the biggest amount of inspiration. This is when the artist within emerges and explodes. It is said a photograph is worth a thousand words, but to me a photograph is worth a million different feelings. By looking at a photo I am instantly transported back to the time it was taken. I can remember everything from the feeling of the sun on my skin, to the scent of the air that consumed my lungs.  As it can be seen, photography plays a large role in my travel.

Some may think this last part to be insane, but there is one thing that I do not use while traveling abroad. This item is my phone. I don’t want to have any contact with the life that is all too familiar. Instead I purchase a pay as you go phone in the country I find myself in. This way I have contact to the friends I make along the way, but I am distant from the life I usually live. This makes my journey so much more worth it. This provides even more of a discontent with borders. It allows myself to truly dive into the culture and not rely on the already known.

This obviously isn’t my entire list of must to accompany my journey, but it is indeed the most important in my eyes.  

  

The Borders Along the Way

I can’t just pick one border that the writers have identified. I think that there are two huge boundaries that our writers have come across, which I think will play a role not only in my travels, but also in my day-to-day life. These borders are the physical and mental borders. I believe that these two borders transcend from travel to influence your life after travel. A true traveler cannot have one without the other.

Obviously, a physical border is much easier to identify. This type of border is a geographical one. Once you decide to move from your own way of life and enter a new region, you have crossed a physical border. This physical border can easily be achieved. One doesn’t even need to leave his or her country, state, or town to accomplish this border. I believe that physical borders are just as important as any other. Even if the difficulty of this crossing is simple, it still very much counts. Finding the courage to leave the area one has come accustomed to is often the biggest obstacle.

I believe that I have found the courage to live outside the norm and experience new physical borders. I believe physical borders play a large part in my personal explorations. I believe in breaking out of the ritualistic cycle of life and jumping the physical borders that so tightly constrain us. Getting on an airplane fills me with such great excitement. I love sitting in the window seat and watching all the borders I am flying over. It is beautiful to see all the colors that paint the earth, each color so unique to each area and the border that it makes up.

As for the mental borders, I personally find these the most groundbreaking and meaningful to myself, and quite possibly the most important border personally. The molding of the mind is one of the most beneficial factors to travel. One’s outlook on life after travel is amazing changed. I have never seen the world in such color, before traveling. The sense of humanity along the way is empowering. The colors, scents, people, and images are forever engrained in my mind. Every memory awakes a new reality of love, life, and happiness.

However, leaving both these borders open for interpretation may leave the traveler with the most well rounded adventure he or she may ever take.