I have always had a strong desire to travel. Over the years I have gone back and forth in my opinion of what “healthy” traveling means for me. Having always suffered from depression, I have gone through phases where too much travel or moving around would have an unhealthy connotation. Too many people in my life have used travel to run from their problems, and I was worried that my wanderlust was more of that variety than anything else. Recently, I have changed my way of thinking.

Travel or moving around will not fix my problems, however, a change of scenery and exploring new things can give me a better outlook on life and help me to rejuvenate my fatigued mind. It has taken me a long time to accept the fact that wanderlust can be a good thing, if used in a healthy way. So, what does that mean for me?

While international travel is a grand adventure (in my very limited experience), I want to travel the United States more. There are so many treasures tucked away in quite corners, right here in my backyard, that I want to find. My goal is to find some of these treasures here in my home state first and then branch out into neighboring states before making my way further out into this large country. Who knows, in a few years maybe I will have visited all fifty states and found some treasures to cherish forever. There is so much to see right here.

And this will not only help me learn more history and local lore, it will help my writing as well. Travel fiction (you know, all those road trip books) have always been a lot of fun to me. These adventures will give me just the right insight to start writing my own road trip stories. There are so many people to meet along the way, from so many different walks of life. Everything in life is an inspiration, depending on how you choose to view it. And my wanderlust can be healthy. It can help me be happier as I learn and explore, it can inspire new stories that will reach a broader audience, and who knows, maybe along the way I will find the one place that I feel most at home. Everyone is supposed to have such a place in the world, maybe I just haven’t found mine yet.

Are you a traveler? I would love to hear your travel stories or suggestions of places that I should visit on my upcoming adventures, so please comment and share them with me!