Travel Genes?
by Carmen Bolanos
May 26, 2009
It’s 11:30 pm and I’m completely exhausted. This weekend we installed a subfloor in our bathroom, tiled the bathroom floor, finished tiling our shower, picked up a table from a lovely Mexican furniture maker for the sinks (not a small task, I think it’s well over 100 pounds), finished the table with polyurethane since it will get wet a lot, painted the walls, removed the tape, bought a toilet, installed the toilet. The tips of my fingers have no skin on them from the grout sand and my knees are permanently white I think. I’ve never felt better in my life! Really.
Why?
All this work is in preparation to rent the addition of our house to a woman and her daughter while we are away in Brazil. To me, this work is another step towards being back in the world. For whatever reason I am never so invigorated as when I’m traveling or about to travel. I don’t know what it is. It is as if there is an integral part of my being that is dormant until I’m on the road. It is not as if I have all wonderful memories of travel. While I do have amazing memories, I’ve also had more than my fair share of travel fiascos, robberies, rare illnesses, last minute emergency returns and even a near kidnapping. I know that things can go bad. And yet I still long to see the world. I come home only to mentally plot the next destination. Is it possible there is a nomadic gene? I think maybe there is. My father spent almost 20 years in the world without returning home. Somewhere back in our family we have some middle eastern bloodline. Perhaps we were on camels and living in yurts. Maybe that’s where it came from. I don’t know.
Certainly, not everyone feels this way. My husband enjoys vacations but has no interest in long term stays or nomading. He says it’s not his thing. Luckily, he is understanding enough to let me do my thing. And while I hear many people feel envious I also notice many bewildered looks among others who hear what we’re about to do. I’m beginning to think the bewildered looks come from people without the nomadic gene.
Whatever the explanation, I can only tell you that when people ask, “why travel?” the only response that enters my mind is, “I must”.
