It is difficult to express with a single word the meaning of another without resorting to a simple synonym. It is even more complicated, if possible, when the word has so much strength and so many stories hidden between its letters, if it accumulates a background that borders on the infinite, if merely pronouncing it awakens a whirlwind of sensations, and even if there are those who have made that word their lifestyle. TRAVEL….
What is travel?
The challenge of defining travel with a single word turned out to be too great, so it was necessary to turn to all those for whom the word travel holds great meaning. And I discovered that, obviously, a single word was not enough, but by joining several together, a semantic map very close to reality was achieved—at least to our reality, yours and mine. A simple poll on social media was enough to get hold of a list of words that screamed at me from my notebook: what is travel to you?
And those words lingered there for several days, waiting for the letters to arrive to give them life. Once they invaded my desk, the challenge became a game of scrabble during which I was disappointed to see that not all the words on the list had a place, that Spanish uses too many Cs and Ns, and that I lacked the letters to write everything that travel means. But at least it was possible to assemble the top ones in the ranking, where there was one winner by an overwhelming majority.
Because travel is freedom… just like that, without further explanation… A sensation that ceases to be just that, transforming into real freedom with every kilometer you cover.
Because travel is adventure.
The most exciting adventure, the one that triggers the greatest adrenaline rush, the one that hooks you the most until it becomes an addiction, even an illness. But also travel is joy, a state of well-being that heals, becoming the best possible medicine. Travel has its ironies—it is both an illness and a medicine at the same time.
Travel is life in capital letters, the clearest synonym for living. And as living involves many other actions, it is easy to understand that travel is movement, even when stationary you are moving forward because this is a continuous journey, an inner evolution that drives you forward… the destination is the least of it. Travel is experiencing, throwing yourself into new things, playing with what you find, testing unknown sensations.
Because travel is dreaming…
It is an immense generator of dreams that never stops, a perfect machine for drawing desires and then making them a reality, no matter their size, whether ambitious or modest. Sometimes, just closing your eyes activates the spring.
Travel is pure pleasure
For the vast majority, it is a pleasure in every sense of the word, something like the chocolate you eat half-hidden before going to sleep or that orgasm that leaves you in a delicious half-sleep during a nap.
Up to that point we all agree, but some were very perceptive by stating that travel is a necessity; not an option, but a necessity. At least, that is how some of us stray souls who need travel as nourishment feel.
Because travel is passion pure and simple, an overwhelming passion that increases with every landscape, which is cultivated for months before departing and which drives you to tirelessly prepare for the next destination.
Travel is learning
The more places I visit, the clearer it becomes to me that travel is the best school, it is a great textbook full of practical exercises to graduate in the degree of life. Every person you meet along the way, every scene you observe in another country, every problem you solve provides you with valuable knowledge difficult to acquire at any university.
Y travel is humility, the humility you must have to approach the people you will meet, the same with which those who have the least but offer you the most will receive you. Never forget to pack humility in your suitcase because it will make you feel the journey in a much more special way.
Travel is magic… that perfect conjurer capable of pulling a rabbit out of the most unthinkable top hat, a magical moment in the most improbable place.
Travel is discovering, it is the curiosity to catch a glimpse of new horizons, unknown cultures, incredible people, virgin sensations; a continuous discovery that surprises you wherever you look, but also an inner discovery because travel reveals a new you that perhaps you did not know before.
Travel is made of smiles, your own that hits you as soon as you close your backpack, but even more so from the smiles of others you cross paths with during the journey, that of the child you play soccer with in the middle of the jungle, that of the group of teenagers taking photos with you in a Vietnamese village, the contagious laughter of your companions after an absurd joke with sea views…
Someone once said that travel is a challenge and I hurried to write the word down. Yes indeed it is a great challenge or a small challenge but, in any case, it represents a motivating exercise in self-improvement.
Travel is feeling
It is a delicious cocktail of sensations, smells, sounds, flavors, textures, hugs, fingers brushing the silk of a sari, a dog barking in the rain in Myanmar, bare feet in the sand of any beach, sun rays caressing overly tired cheeks in the Philippines, a shiver as a piece of glacier falls in Alaska, nocturnal roars taking over the night in Namibia, the spiciness of sushi in Japan…
All of that is felt and remembered afterwards because travel is memory, a particular tapestry woven with unforgettable moments.
Undoubtedly, travel is exploring with or without a compass, with or without a direction, with or without a map.
How can one not state over and over again, at the top of one’s lungs, that travel is happiness, more specifically it causes happiness. No more explanations are needed here, right?
But also travel is tolerance, it is respect for differences, it is understanding that the unknown is just as valid, that the culture opposite to yours deserves your admiration or, at least, your attention. Traveling the world fosters that tolerance, awakens your solidarity; it always adds, never subtracts.
Travel is emotion contained or overflowing, a timid emotion that doesn’t want to be discovered and hides behind a sigh, an uncontrollable emotion that breaks out in tears because travel will never leave you indifferent.
There are those who were indeed able to define travel with a single word: disappear. Because sometimes vanishing is the most interesting of journeys, because sometimes it is necessary to become invisible to make yourself visible to yourself.
It is also true that travel is change because you never return home the same as when you left; there has always been a change, an evolution, an improvement, a t-shirt that is no longer in its usual drawer, a new lesson that you have brought back and assimilated.
And my word, my particular combination of letters to define travel is becoming clearer and clearer because travel is excitement. That excitement that becomes the leitmotif of life, which continues to give you butterflies in your stomach when you think of a new country, which keeps alive the child that still lives crouched inside you and wakes up every time you look at a map.
The words took on a life of their own and began to take over the giant world map that presides over my living room. Of course, they couldn’t find a better place. This is how this map was drawn, defining travel with your words, those you have gifted to me. Thank you very much to everyone who has collaborated in drawing this semantic geography of travel.
Now take the opportunity if you miss any word and tell me, what is travel to you?
