My Heart, My Compass

One can learn a great deal about who a person is and how they lead their life by learning a bit about how they choose to travel. There are those who leave home with a small amount of time and a huge, detailed itinerary, strictly planning to see a new place each day. There are those with the same small amount of time, but who would prefer to spend it relaxing in one place, ignoring the stress and worries that will surely be awaiting them when they return home. And there are those people, more of whom I meet nearly every day, who prefer to travel more or less the way I do.

For me, the most satisfaction comes from a trip that reveals to me some information about myself and how I fit into the world. I have found that I learn the most when I embark with a general plan in mind, and stray from it as often as I like. For example, I started this trip knowing one thing: I was going to the beach in Mexico. I flew to Zihautanejo, enjoyed myself for a while, fell into a tedious routine, and decided to abandon my original plan altogether.

After following a route that seemed to materialize on its own, I discovered that I would much rather walk the streets of cool, colonial mountain towns than swim and lay in the sun. Some of my favorite places have been ones that didn't enter my mind or my plan until a day or two before I arrived.

Of course, I have also been to some of those places that everybody knows about, and which most people consider to be necessary stops along the way. These can be quite nice; there is a reason they became so popular. But if I go to them simply because I feel I'm supposed to, and not because my heart tells me I really should, I always leave longing for more. Something is missing. Although it can be a bit unnerving at first to venture away from the path that most people are following, and allow my heart to lead me instead, the places I get to when I do always reveal to me a little about who I am.

And so I'm on the road, following my heart and finding answers to some of the questions that have been floating through my thoughts for a long time. I'm not sure where I'll go tomorrow, or the day after that, and it's not important that I am. I know that wherever my heart leads me I'll be happy.