In life, I think people are lucky if they find their “thing.” You know, the thing you think about as soon as you wake up? The thing you contemplate as you’re lying in bed waiting to fall asleep? That thing that sneaks into your every thought throughout the day, pushing aside other things and forcing your brain to make room for it?
I think you’re lucky if you find yours. I think so many people turn to substances or other vices to fill that emptiness that can only be filled by your passion, your joy, your obsession. Armchair psychology? Cheesy? Of course, but it’s what I believe.
For Caitlin and I, travel is our thing. It’s our everything. It’s what we talk about, dream about, obsess about, and, occasionally, it’s what we actually do.
A friend of mine once said, “I like the money I spend to last more than a week,” referring to a trip I was inviting him on. This, with the implication, that travel is fleeting but something tangible, a guitar maybe, lasts, so it’s where he preferred to spend money. And that’s OK. I’m learning, slowly but surely, that travel is not everyone’s thing. But it is mine.
In 2004, I moived to New Zealand for 2 years. That was where the seeds of my obsession were planted. Kiwis love to travel. I met people who had been everywhere. I remember once talking to a lady as she was packing her car. Curious, I asked where she was off to. “Bali.” I had never even heard of Bali, but after hearing her description of it, I wanted to go. I needed to go.
European cultures value the “OE,” the overseas experience. Kids my age were heading from New Zealand across the world, and here I was, having only visited one foreign country…the one I was currently in.
In 2008, I went back to New Zealand to live. While there, I found a cheap flight to visit a friend in Australia. I went to Sydney and Brisbane and realized the world was even bigger—and cooler—than I ever thought possible. Travel was starting to fill up the gap in my life that nothing had filled yet. I found it creeping into my every thought.
While in Brisbane, I decided to head back to my base in Hastings, New Zealand, but couldn’t find a flight that met my (lack of) budget. Crazy enough, I found a cheap flight to Fiji. It didn’t make sense, but I had a friend there, so I went. Once again, my mind was opened. My worldview was shattered. I had to see everywhere and do everything.
Caitlin and I didn’t realize how much travel would impact us until December 2011. We had been on a cruise for our honeymoon and that was awesome, but it wasn’t exactly culturally impactful. In November, we discussed going to Europe and shortly thereafter booked, mostly on a whim. We had no idea how to travel, we just knew we wanted to see the Louvre, and the Trevi Fountain, and Buckingham Palace.
That trip quite literally changed our lives. We still laugh about the flight (Salt Lake to Phoenix to Charlotte to London) and about how lost we were in London, about our $100 Christmas lunch (it was the only place that was open). We still marvel at the Sistine Chapel and the Eiffel Tower and the closeness we felt, thousands of miles from anyone we knew, just us against the world. And it gave us that unquenchable thirst to see the world. It started us on a path that, even now, 5 continents later, we’re just starting. We can’t wait to share it with you.
In our day jobs, I run Apericots and Caitlin is a full-time graduate student and part-time nurse. We currently live in Lehi, Utah.