Being a Traveler: A potentially deep, but probably not, commentary on moving around

Let us begin with the concept of home. If I'm going to start talking about traveling, about moving around, a brief discussion on home is probably the best place to start. In order to truly travel, a person must first begin from a home. A home, of course is not the physical structure where one lives. Rather, it is a feeling-- or better yet, a value. Now, many would disagree with me here, but a home for me is that sense of comfort and stability where I can always expect to be safe-- where I am free to be myself, where I can always expect to be accepted. My home is where my deepest principles and guiding ideas are formed, nurtured and are always present so much so that no matter what happens, I will feel... well... at home there. Hehe. Here, there are no pretensions, no masks, no need for trying to fit in... because you will always fit in. Here is a place where I can share everything, and everything is shared with me. A home is much like the legalistic domicile (animus manendi, animus non revertendi and all that. Oh wow, I can't believe I even used that here!) in the sense that you truly would not want to leave it.A home then has an aura of permanence. Just think, the best resorts in Palawan, even if they offer much, cannot be considered as home, right? But it goes much, much deeper than that. A home is always a part of you, and when you go on your travels, you are always attached to your home, no matter how far you go or how long you stay away, because at the back of your mind, you know that that's where you still belong. And you will always carry your home with you, so that when you reach where your road leads, only then can you really enjoy the sights there and still feel safe and comfortable. Only then will you truly cherish your destination. Your home then is composed of the places you hold most dear, the people closest to you, the memories and ideas you treasure the most. Verily(Ech! can't seem to get the SCRA out of my mind), to move around without a home is to simply be an aimless wanderer, not a traveler.

Well, enough about homes. Let's talk about traveling. How many times have you gone on a trip that went wrong because of wrong planning? Or more specifically, how many times have things gone awry because you were just not committed enough to follow through with your trip. Yeah, the spirit may have been willing, but be honest now, how many times have you planned to go and climb a mountain, go biking up a trail, or even go nature tripping somewhere, but were prevented from actually doing so by situations entirely your fault? This problem may be brought about by a score of reasons ranging from inumans held the night before to incredible workloads that could not be left undone but could surely have been prepared for anyway. In fact, you may even have started your trip already but did not continue with it because you chose to stop over and have an eat-all-you can in one of those mega gas stations along the way. The point here is simple: do not allow yourself to get sidetracked. This idea is quite easy enough to understand, but it goes without saying that this involves a certain amount of commitment to your goal. Quitting never gets you anywhere.

It’s just a matter of weighing your priorities, what’s important to you.

Next, we come to the trip itself. Okay, you may have a goal, you may have an idea of where you want to go, but do you have what it takes to get there? Some of us, myself included, tend to have so much in mind, but fail in the actual execution. Either you’re not ready for the adventure, you’re not familiar with the terrain, or you simply can’t handle the destination you’ve chosen. With regard to the first two problems, the answer is quite easy. All you have to do is… get ready. Grow up and recognize all the difficulties involved, accept them, and…simply get ready for them! You saw yourself as wanting to get to your destination, so you might as well give it your best shot, right? If you’re not familiar with the terrain, then, familiarize yourself with it. Do research on the Net, ask around, do whatever it takes. As I said, if you really want to get somewhere, it’s just a matter of giving importance to that adventure. If you can’t give it your priority, then you really wouldn’t want going there in the first place. As can easily be seen, these two are conquerable problems because they are dependent mostly on the person involved. As regards the last problem, this is something really beyond us. If you really aren’t capable of going on the trip, if you don’t have what it takes, if you really can’t handle the stress, then you’re better off not going. If the chosen destination is somewhere so outrageous that you couldn’t possibly conquer it, you’re better off not going. If, for some other reason, like if the destination you chose is somehow off limits, you’re better off not going. Don’t go through with it. There’s nothing wrong with abandoning futile tasks.

Okay, the next step therefore is the actual moving around part. Here, you’ve chosen the best destination for you and have ascertained that you’re capable and are willing to sweat to get there. Now, the only thing to do is pick the right route. It is important to realize that there are many roads for every destination, and each road is unique. The sights, difficulty and over all experience involved changes with the choices of routes we take. So, it’s just a matter of choosing the right road for us, a road that suits our needs and expectations. Let’s take climbing a mountain for instance. You can choose short cuts, you can take longer scenic routes, you can take die-hard, extreme routes that require heavy duty equipment. But the bottom-line is, you’ll still reach that same summit everyone else reaches. You just chose to get there in your own fashion. However, one pitfall in choosing a road is the fact that several roads do not really get you to your destination. You could travel for hours and reach a point where you simply can’t go any further. But still, this is part of the adventure. Still, you’ve learned that that trail does not work, and you can use that in the future. All you have to do is simply backtrack a bit and get on the right way again. And that’s the good thing with traveling: making mistakes is really a big part of it. Trust me, I’ve spent many hours getting lost on mountains myself. And even if I exhausted myself finding the correct path, such a mistake cannot really be called a waste of time. I took the risk of taking that path with the hope that it would get me to where I wanted to go, and even if I really wasn’t sure where it would take me, it was still full of meaning as it rested on a hope. This then is opposed to purposely walking into dead ends or traveling on roads that you know do not lead where you want to go. One simply does not take a path, knowing that it leads nowhere. Doing so would really be a waste of time because this does not contribute to your ultimate goal. Rather, it prevents you from moving on towards the right direction without teaching you anything important. It could be argued that venturing into a dead end can be productive as you would still be able to see some sights and experience some part of the entire adventure. But this is not entirely true. Why? Because of one simple point: You did not undertake the trip for that reason. You did not travel for a mere dead end, no matter if it seems to make you happy at the moment. What you traveled for is the ultimate destination, not that. Would a diver stop in the middle of a dive and dwell there because he saw some clown fishes halfway down? No. He would continue on because he went on the dive to get to the bottom where the corals lie. Where all the other fishes are. To get stuck in the middle, with no intention of moving further, is therefore to content yourself with something so utterly lacking. True enough, some destinations are just worth going the distance for.

Finally, I must end with a reiteration of the concept on how the whole traveling experience is in fact a mere affirmation of who you are. Or better yet, traveling in truth involves a full circle wherein your destination is a reflection of the home that you left behind... but will soon return to. You choose the destination you choose because that’s where you want to go. But this choice is in turn motivated precisely by the characteristics that make you, you. Consequently, this choice is guided by your home. You choose to climb up a mountain because your principles guide you to that choice. You choose to go to a secluded forest over simply going to the mall because you believe that the former is more important and valuable. You choose to go to a far away city because you know that will ultimately make you happy. I guess, in a way, you are fulfilled by your traveling because through this, you find yourself coming home. And this is why you cannot really appreciate your travels unless you recognize the import of your home. If you’ll notice, the best beach you’ve been on, the highest mountain you’ve climbed, or the most spectacular sunset you’ve seen is not as perfect if you don’t intend to share it with a loved one. The best destinations are in fact those that you want to share with your home.

And with that, if there is one thing that I want to impart here, it would be the idea that the best routes for us, our most comfortable paths, our personal roads ultimately lead back home. Personally speaking, the best place I can think of is the place that I've planned to be in all along, the place where I'm willing to journey to the best of my abilities for, and this is also the place where I feel most at home. As the saying goes, there’s no place like home.

Do all these make sense? Nah. I guessed as much. Dala na lang ng puyat to….