This past weekend I went through caffeine withdrawal. It was a miserable experience: a full forty-eight hours of a throbbing headache and insurmountable fatigue. I spent most of two days in bed, popping Ibuprofen and lavishing attention on my very contented cat. When I told a close friend I had done it in the name […]

Sitting still is not meditating, nor is it waiting. To ease your journey you will have to learn to do both of those things with grace, but that will come later. Today your task is merely to sit still, and observe. A public place is the best location for this. Find a cafe with outdoor […]

The first time I traveled abroad I shoved my prettiest clothes in a true hiker’s framed backpack a cousin had lent me. I was going to Scotland, the fantasy destination of my childhood, with a good friend from highschool I kept every free memento from the trip: Underground ticket stubs, Cadbury chocolate wrappers, a complimentary […]

The journey begins today, as I walk down the stairs and am confronted with my bike. I do not have time to ride my bike to work today. I never have time to ride my bike to work. I have a morning routine, and it is a bad one. Every morning I hit the snooze […]

The trip begins now, more than a year before I leave the United States. The trip begins when I become a tourist in my everyday life and learn to approach the world with a sense of wonder. The trip cannot be postponed. It begins this very moment, in my psychology class, where so many other […]

Even as you read this page, you are traveling. The planet Earth rotates at 1, 040 miles per hour. Gravity and momentum are the only things holding us to its surface. Travel is more than backpacks, plane tickets and guidebooks. Travel begins when you decide that the world is not a map, and that travel […]