Going on holiday is almost like entering a parallel universe: We export our personality along with a capsule wardrobe and a travel-size shampoo and insert ourselves to an entirely different context. We’re still ourselves, but also… not.
We may dress a little differently from the way we do at home, be bolder because nobody knows us here and develop an unexpected appreciation for sunrise yoga. Suddenly we have to navigate a language, culture and lay of land that are often entirely different from those we’re accustomed to.
Moving through the day on auto-pilot is no longer an option. Neither do we need to, because suddenly life feels exciting again: so many new experiences, views, people. And on circa day two arises the inevitable question: Should I move here?
Every single time I travel, that is precisely what I wonder. In this new place, the possible versions of the life I can create seem infinite. Surely that is the sign to sell all my furniture and take the leap?
Often I wonder why so many of us feel this way; it seems universal after all. My guess is that we travel to escape our daily life and accidentally escape ourselves, too. Not our entire personality, but those habits and traits we might not actually enjoy so much anyway.
Navigating a new environment also means reinventing ourselves a little bit each day, even if we’re just trying to order a coffee in Spanish. We get to be whoever we want to be, rewrite our life entirely without the perceived danger of second-guessing the grown-up, serious life we built back home. What could be more liberating?
We get to live dozens of different lives, dip our toes in them for a few days. And while we inevitably end up on that flight home, ready to be hit with the hard realization that daily life takes less than two business days to reclaim us wholly, there’s always a little piece of that other version that sticks with us.
It may be the newly founded tradition of having an full English breakfast every Sunday, a favourite coat thrifted on an rainy afternoon in Amsterdam or a resilience that only New York public transport can instill in you.
Those small puzzle pieces we collect on every vacation are added to us and become a part of the beautiful mozaik that is our real life. They shape our habits, experiences and skills and alter us ever so slightly. We never return from a holiday quite the same person we used to be. I can’t imagine anything more enriching.
So if you needed a sign to book that trip, this is it. Be curious which new side of yourself you’ll meet there.
Love,
Carola
