[The Restorative Nature of Travel] Why Travel Leads to Identity

 An airport, a Greyhound station, an Amtrak steaming down the railway, staring out of the window, free of the monotony of everyday life. Travel imbues in us our true identity and reinforces what we can be, reminds of us that what we could be is but a thing not meant to be.

We lose ourselves to once again find ourselves, to travel the length of an unknown path for so long that we begin living inside of that path. Memories stain our brains, become apart of us, define our identity and leaves no doubt as to what can be accomplish. This is a vast and scary world we live in, where the wrong turn or step could lead us into turmoil but nothing is without its flaws; if we want to find beauty, we must walk paths into directions we've never been, we've never imagined, those we've spent the entirety of our lives reading of and idolizing, to get to the light that is always there, if we are so inclined, so intent on finding.

Travel not for the luxury, or the means, or the motive but the leitmotif to keep living, to refuse, as Bob Dylan once said "To go down under the ground because someone told me death was coming round," or Dylan Thomas " Do not go quietly into that good night." Travel is a means of fighting for life, for identity, to continue learning in a life where knowledge is forever a prerequisite for survival.

Live for travel, travel to live, learn to love the earth as the earth has provided the circle of life that has come to the day of your birth.

-Dontrell Lovet't