If I had a dollar for every time someone told me I’ll never find a mate if I keep traveling, I could take all those ill gotten bills and buy a plane ticket.
(Disclaimer: I haven’t found one yet, but I firmly believe that’s because of a series of fails and has nothing at all to do with travel. But I guess we’ll see).
I had someone even say to me recently: “When you finally settle down, you’ll be able to say hey husband, look at all these great things I did before.”
As though I’ll be dead and grounded with a ring on my finger.
I get the general concern: if you’re physically gone, how will you be around to meet someone/when will you have time to meet someone/how will you accommodate that someone if you do meet them?
But I’d like to very kindly dismiss all of those concerns.
For one, foregoing what you’re most passionate about is the shortest road to despair, so even if you’ve snagged a someone, you’ll end up unhappy because you’re not doing what you love and they’ll end up unhappy at some point as a result of your surely infectious unhappiness.
So for me, not traveling at all is out. (Heads up, future husband).
And the notion that you can’t/won’t meet someone if you’re traveling is just a silly one. There are many a couple who have met while traveling, my parents included. There are also couples who have met on a trip, married and continued traveling together (and travel is actually what they do for a living) and then made a baby and he’s new and already tagging along.
What’s probably the most pressing concern for those worried my travel bug infliction might render me a perma solo adventurer, is that a traveler has no time for a relationship.
So let’s clear that one up too.
I can’t speak for all travelers, so I’ll just speak for me when I say, if you love someone in a way that that person feels free, everyone wins.
Right now, I travel as much as I can because I can. It’s part of my job and my local responsibilities are few. But, when that changes and you have someone who loves you right and loves your loves just as much as you love them, you may opt to stay home a little more of your own accord, or he or she will be hopping on a plane to meet you whenever and wherever they can. And when there’s tots involved, they’ll travel too.
Travel is life’s single greatest education, so getting little ones involved in adventures early shows them not only the world, but life, family bonding, common sense, acceptance and it inspires a sense of curiosity—which I think is key to learning and living life on your own terms.
They say not all who wander are lost, because some of us aren’t. Some of us are intentionally living a life filled with out-of-the-neighborhood escapades. And I think, when love is right, it can go hand in hand with travel and make seeing the world an even more beautiful experience than it already is. Because you’re not only seeing it with your own eyes, but through they eyes of those you love most.
That, to me, is joy.