I like to travel. A lot.
My bookshelves are adorned with an enviable collection of Lonely Planet™ guides and phrasebooks. More than a dozen emails a day cheerily flood my inbox, describing incomparable dive sites and advertising last minute get-away specials. I sign up for credit cards I don’t need, just to cushion my frequent flyer accounts. The orange Kayak app icon greets me every time I look down at my iPhone.
You get the idea.
What fuels this — some might say — obsessive behavior are the intangible, yet palpable, connections with people and places that invariably occur when I’m on the road. Exchanging smiles with a little Guatemalan girl sitting across from me on a bus. Meandering through food market stalls as they spring to life in the morning. Savoring a glass of wine as the summer sun sets over a city skyline. My spirit always flies a little bit higher with every one of these moments.
Yes, the travel bug will forever frolic inside me.
Recently, though, I’ve been working on growing my business (Elevate Law School Admissions Consulting) and cultivating new projects — leaving me with an unfamiliar pull to ground myself at home, and be present here in Los Angeles.
Pondering my situation, I had an epiphany: traveling and staying home are not mutually exclusive.
Traveling is more a state of being than it is the number of flights we board or oceans we cross. At its essence, traveling is about bursting out of the routine and into the remarkable, escaping the mundane and embracing the exceptional, while blasting open and expanding our comfort zones. It’s about becoming familiarized with the new…and ourselves in the process.
So, in the not-so-often kindred spirits of adventure and laying down roots, I am embarking on a journey — right here at home in Los Angeles.
Love it…I’m inspired (and excited to have a new Zagat’s guide of sorts)!
Go Ariane! So excited to follow your adventures
Thanks so much for the excitement…makes me even more excited!
I want to come!! Your words truly capture the essence of what travel should really mean!! Look forward to more.
How exciting! I’m ready to follow your adventure!
Thanks, Shanti! I love following YOUR adventures! Just found you on Twitter, BTW.
Thanks, Marty! If ever you can make it out to Los Angeles, some sort of adventure awaits…
go Ariane!!!! sounds like fun, can we make suggestions?
Yes, please! Suggestions are always welcome. I’d love this journey to be as interactive and shared as possible…
Love it, love it, love it. Take me on adventures!!!
Will be in LA Thursday visiting Alan and the kids. Love your pictures and your adventures.
Thank you! Hope you’re all having an extraordinary time together. Sorry about the cool, rainy weather…
Had a great time catching up with the Alan and the kids.
I’ve been thinking about this a good deal myself..i’ve also traveled and moved alot..and i thrive on exploration..latly i’ve been realizing how little i know of my own surroundings, and of the lovely country just to our south.
Mexico is very close to my heart…I’ve traveled quite a bit through different regions of the country, but am always thinking about exploring others. Let me know whenever you want to get together and talk travel!
Your blog is great! Awesome stuff. Hope you are doing well!
THANK YOU!!! Sending love to you and K and the boys…
I love this paragraph:
“Traveling is more a state of being than it is the number of flights we board or oceans we cross. At its essence, traveling is about bursting out of the routine and into the remarkable, escaping the mundane and embracing the exceptional, while blasting open and expanding our comfort zones. It’s about becoming familiarized with the new…and ourselves in the process.”
As a native New Yorker, I was just thinking earlier today that I should get on the subway and walk my way down an avenue, while window shopping and eating in some new places, and picking up “souvenirs” of my day. Now, I’m going to do it.
So glad to hear of YOUR inspiration! What did you see/do/try?
I, too, am a native New Yorker, and a chunk of my heart always remains in the city.
Thank you for the kind words…