Am I the only one?
I was thinking last night while I was brushing my teeth (it’s a very thought-provoking time for me, almost as good as the shower…) about traveling, and how when I travel, everything just seems to new and other-worldly to me. I began to wonder if everyone else feels the same way?
I mean, I feel like if I visited Australia, I would be absolutely gob-smacked by the way it looks. Hell, when I visited the coast of California and saw the blue of the pacific ocean crashing onto the red, rocky cliffs under soaring cedar trees, I had my breath taken away — and I was in my own country.
I live in one of the more beautiful areas of my country, nestled in a valley in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Appalachia. The rolling green slopes look blue in the hazy distance, and on a clear day on the parkway, you can see for miles and miles. We have 80 foot waterfalls and a dancing river filled with wildlife. I live in an incredible area, honestly, but then I wonder if it seems that incredible to someone else, someone who would be considered foreign? Or, how it would seem to someone in California, even? Would they feel the same way I did seeing the sun glinting off the cool waters of their ocean, swirling around colorful hermit crabs, when they saw the sun setting over my lovely mountains?
I am from Baltimore, MD, a very charming city filled with ethnic enclaves and all types of culture. When I went to Chicago, I absolutely marveled over the old-fashioned buildings and its unique personality as one of the old Northern cities that held the empires of the turn of the century. I wonder if someone visiting Baltimore from Chicago would feel the same way I did, if they would feel the old-world charm Baltimore has in its streets, feel what life was like for people a century ago living in the row houses I would stroll past on my way to downtown. I wonder if they would marvel they way I did at their home.
I wonder if it’s because I take where I live for granted, so every other place I live I take to be so much more amazing. Or, does everyone just not see what I see when I go to these different places? Or, would my mountains be just as exotic to you as the Badlands of North Dakota were to me?
Filed under: Adventures, Life, Wonderings | 4 Comments
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The name is Stephanie, and boy do I like to ramble.
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20. Psychology major. Geek. Artist. Writer. Photographer. Clemson University. Baltimore, hon. Asheville. Yankee stuck in the south.
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Chicken Scratches 
I think it is simply that you grow accustomed to the place you see constantly so you tend to forget how beautiful it is. It’s the newness that makes you go “wow” I think. I’m the same way…I also live in NC and I think it’s a beautiful place but I’m used to it so when I go somewhere new, I’m amazed at the beauty. I’m so grounded that just thinking about going somewhere far away makes me feel like it’s impossible! I want to travel but at the same time I’m thinking “but it’s sooooo far away!” :)
Nope, your not the only one. Even though the places we go on vacation are the same places that we always go, it is always new & interesting to me.
I think it is just that where ever you live, you get accustomed to the sights there, but other places are always “new”. For example, I live right near DC, and whenever we go with relatives or something I’m just like “Oh yeah, the Washington monument, lets move on…”, but of course we stay for a billion hours looking at buildings. Of course I don’t really enjoy museums filled with pieces of half-blue-half-grey slate anyway, so who am I to give my opinion *rants*.
Hehe, I just noticed the “type here” :P
I do the same thing. I think that’s why I enjoy traveling so much. Every place feels like a completely new world.