Craving Permanency...

I've spent most of the past three years of my life away from home. And yet, I haven't really built a home anywhere else.

I'm from the Pacific Northwest, go to school in California, and studied abroad, twice. Once in Seoul, South Korea, and once in Florence, Italy. It's an awesome life, I'm totally aware. I've had the chance to live in four amazing and different places in the past few years and I now have friends and stories from all over the world. That's not what I'm complaining about. But yes, I am complaining.

Because as awesome as it is to lead the life of a wanderer, to feel nomadic and like the whole world is my home, it also feels sort of...transient? Intangible? Unreal? I haven't spent enough time in one place so the past few years of my life have resulted in a sort of collection of many acquaintances. What I now realize I'm lacking is a home base. There is nowhere that I feel like I have a strong sense of community. You're part of a GLOBAL community. Don't be ungrateful. 

From Where I Stand: London's Princess Diana Memorial Walk

Ah, yes. I understand. And I don't mean to be all #firstworldproblems up in here (hurr*). But the truth of the matter is, humans aren't really meant to be alone. We aren't lone wolves, we are people who are meant to live in communities and form meaningful relationships with others.

I love my life. I love traveling and I actually have plans to continue traveling for the next few years at least. But there are always pros and cons and one huge con to constantly moving your life around is that it is really hard to maintain your relationships.

We're lucky to have Skype, Facebook, iMessage, Myspace (throwback reference), but they will NEVER be sufficient replacements for face-to-face contact, and I can say that with confidence after a year-long long distance relationship. Technology cannot, I repeat, CANNOT, be a replacement for the real deal (another topic for another day).

So while I am lucky to have met everyone in my life that I have, at the end of the day, there are only a couple people I can call up in any one city to actually hang out with. And while it's difficult, but not impossible, to maintain relationships with such a nomadic lifestyle, it's  basically out of the question to try to form any romantic relationships. Why bother when I know I will be picking up and moving in a year or so?

I believe I'm a traveler at heart, inflicted by wanderlust and destined to roam at least mentally, if not physically, for life. I've gotten to meet people from all over the country and all over the world. But at the end of the day, I'm kind of lonely. In high school, I detested being stuck in one city my whole life. 

Now, sometimes I crave the feeling of permanency.