Those who are symptom-less will never understand, but those who are affected are forever cursed.

“To the ends of the earth, would you follow me?
There’s a world that was meant for our eyes to see”

The concept of travel is rather a bizarre one. It is hot-and-cold in essence–some of my friends enjoy traveling, others have never left the country, and a few have no desire to. None have been fortunate enough to have had so many experiences at this age like I have. None of them are diagnosed as travel-obsessed. None of them understand what it feels like to spend hours on the explore function of Kayak, searching for some place to get away to for as cheap as possible. None of them understand the depth of my Google Chrome Bookmark bar, how happy it makes me, and how to make sense of it. None of them can comprehend my desire to spend 5 months in China, or the thought of extending a semester abroad to an academic year. All of them think: crazy, insane, rich, skewed priorities, selfish. And, the worst of all, unattainable.

The beautifully tragic thing about this disease is that it’s completely incurable and expands rapidly throughout your body. You go on an adventure and come back happier, yet you come back with an even stronger desire to start planning the next one. These desires continue to grow until you get so used to this thrill that you find yourself unhappy if the next adventure isn’t set to be in store. The pursuit of travel and the adrenaline rush that comes along with it becomes you, it engulfs you and swallows you whole. It invades your mind, taking over your daily life. It becomes who you are and who you will forever be.

Yet, as it happens, you realize you could not imagine life any other way. You learn how to use this desire to fuel you, to help you accomplish your other dreams, and to defy others. You take it in stride and use it to grow and blaze your own trail. It alters your life completely, but it shapes you into a unique, thrill-seeking, and defying individual.

You will feel alone for awhile. You will feel crazy and exiled and often out of place. But, you will learn. You will meet others who share your feelings and your symptoms, and you will empathize with them. You will find ways to work with the symptoms and make them play a bigger role in your daily life. And, most of all, you will continue to live knowing that you will experience the essence of life more than any of your loved ones, your peers, you acquaintances. You will live, learn, and feel more than they could ever understand. It will be a journey, but it will be something so incredibly beautiful. Never be ashamed, only excited for the next big adventure. You are not alone.