When it comes to my taste buds, my palate is a bit strange, as far as most opinions go.
For example, I actually prefer the gourmet quality of Taco Bell's grade F meat to the authentic and high quality Mexican food. (But given how much I mention Taco Bell, this may not surprise you at all.) In addition, I will choose the tastiness of delivered pizza such as Papa John's or Dominos over a pizza cooked by a fancy Italian restaurant. (Although I'm currently in Italy, and any pizza, anywhere, from any place tastes delicious. You can't miss in this place). When ordering ice cream, 99.9% of the time I'm ordering classic chocolate, no matter what kind of snazzy and creative flavors are options.
What can I say, I'm a girl of simple tastes, and when it comes to food, I'm not complicated to please. In fact, as you have probably ascertained by the amount of blog space I've already dedicated to Taco Bell, I take great pleasure in my simple tastes. (Plus, they save me quite a bit of money on food!)
People used to tell me that high school or college were going to be the best four years of my life. Anytime someone told me this, I thought they were crazy. That sentence alone depresses me. Who wants to be maxed out at age 18 or 22? Not this girl. I like to believe that life only gets better with age, with wisdom, and with experiences.
When on a trip such as this, backpacking through all these glorious cities in Europe, the days are filled with moments of glamour and beauty, and "once in a lifetime" opportunities abound with all the sights to see and experiences to have.
But as beautiful as the "once in a lifetime" joys are, I personally think it's a bittersweet concept to only get something so joyous once in a lifetime. Were my sources of great pleasure only found at the expense of a one time backpacking experience, or the four years of high school or college, logically that leaves a great portion of my life only dreaming about such experiences, or working my way up to the next source of great pleasure. Sadly I find a great many people spend most of their life dreaming about glamorous, exciting experiences while living in a perspective that sees the world (and perhaps even the people) around them as mundane. We believe the great pleasures and joys are only found "once in a lifetime," and somehow we've satiated ourselves with mere dreaming, convinced this is the way things are.
But as for me, I like to find and see the great joy in the little things, the things that will still be available to us tomorrow, the things that can still be found years from now. I'm convinced of this: If we can learn to find great joy in some of the simplest of things, the world will suddenly be filled with possibility for phenomenal experiences all the time.
I once saw the sunrise from Mount Sinai. No question, that was incredible. But I take just as much joy in seeing the sunrise or sunset from the simplicity of a backyard, or the ferry ride a few weeks ago.
Consider the laughter of a child. It is pure, unadulterated, completely innocent, and 100% bursting with authentic joy. Few things are more beautiful, in my opinion. I realize you don't have to cross oceans and time zones to see or hear this, and to me, that's the beauty of it. Its availability on this planet is nearly ubiquitous.
Recognizing this, suddenly one realizes that journeys such as this one, where every day is a new adventure filled with new potential friendships, new photo opportunities, and grand places to visit - these journeys don't have to end when we return home, but they can continue for all of our days.
“The traveler was active; he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The tourist is passive; he expects interesting things to happen to him. He goes sight-seeing.” – Daniel J. Boorstin
On the one hand, I can choose the life of a tourist. I visit beautiful places and people, and let them visit me internally. But I do not take them with me, they do not change who I am.
But on the other hand, I can choose the life of a traveler. I can appreciate the beauty of the Duomo in Florence or Milan, but I can also find just as much beauty in the soft rain falling outside my window, just as much joy in a short message from a good friend.
I would prefer to be a traveler through life, capable of carrying the perspective I am learning and recreating the magical experiences I am living into each and every day of my life, regardless of where I am. For as I am meeting people and seeking out the beauty in places, I ask, "Is this not possible in any place, where there are people and existence and life happening?" Perhaps, if I allow my vision to become inspired, I can find myself living days such as these wherever I am, whomever I'm with. Perhaps you and I and all places are beautiful simply because they all reside under the same sky, because they are all created by the same Hand, because they all reflect life and the beauty that lies within.
I don't wish to spend my life going from one mountaintop to waiting for another, only really taking pleasure in the "once in a lifetime" experiences that take (sometimes) miles and years of valleys to reach again.
No, I wish to find the joy and beauty of the valleys, the mundane, the redundant, the simple, and the commonplace...
...because if we can achieve that kind of vision, the world becomes a blissful romance, a constant delight to the sense, even the shades of gray.
“I soon realized that no journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it goes an equal distance into the world within.” Lillian Smith
"Your true traveller finds boredom rather agreeable than painful. It is the symbol of his liberty - his excessive freedom. He accepts his boredom, when it comes, not merely philosophically, but almost with pleasure." - Aldous Huxley
You are an amazing writer. So inspiring to read this. The difference between a tourist and a traveler. Im more the tourist type as of now but reading this really makes me want to jump up and truely experience life, not just watch it go by.
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