i have a serious case of wanderlust. i have always desired to travel and experience the world for myself. seeing photos of faraway places has never been good enough for me. i want to know it firsthand. I want to stand on the ground where history has been made, see for myself what pictures cannot convey, and leave knowing that another place is no stranger to chelsea davis.
if i may quote belle from beauty and the beast, "i want adventure in the great wide somewhere. i want it more than i can tell." i can empathize with belle. travel and adventure get my heart beating faster. it’s a true love of mine. i love being able to say that i have experienced something at least once. in the last 9 years, i have traveled to london, paris, rome, montreal, jamaica, dominican republic, peru, and india. and those are just the foreign places i've been. i love american history and the cities i've been able to visit here as well. i am truly blessed to have a traveler’s heart and to have seen so much already. and it isn't enough. i want more. this world is so beautiful, and i want to see as much as i can. so many wonderful memories, and so many more ahead, Lord willing.
some of my favorite memories from these wonderful places…standing 10 feet from queen elizabeth II as she drove by and waved to us…getting lost on a train in paris, and turning around to see the eiffel tower sparkling as it does every night…seeing the sistine chapel…swinging from a tree into the black river in jamaica, then our boat getting caught in the pouring rain on the way back…laying on a picture perfect beach in dominican republic…seeing the deepest and most gorgeous canyon in peru…having to go to the bathroom on a cement floor in a dark room in india (i’m still laughing about that)…not to mention the wonderful people i've met, especially on the missions trips.
God has allowed me to see so much of his world, the beautiful, the broken, and the hurting. my eyes are wide open to both the evil and the good in this world, and i am better for it.
all of that to say, with the new year i am ready for some new adventures. i already have at least 4 trips i would like to take this year to visit some friends in boston, nashville, NYC, and orlando. and you might be wondering how this ties into the perks of being single. well, it really comes down to finances and freedom.
travelling is expensive. if it wasn't, then more people would do it more often. just last night, i started working on crunching numbers for these 4 trips. thankfully, being single and kid free actually works in my favor. my costs are much lower with one person. i am able to stay with friends and skip out on hotel costs, i can share gas costs with a friend, my food budget will only include one person, and i only need to purchase a single ticket for any outing. married couples will need double the budget, and add some kids in there and we could be getting into a thousand dollars or more depending on the destination. yikes! i don’t know if i’d be able to stand having to raise that much money just to travel somewhere new, unless it was out of the country.
after crunching numbers, the next issue is having the time and freedom to go. being single, i can just go. i don’t have to think about anyone’s schedule except my own. i can take a weekend and skip town whenever i hear a new city calling me to explore all it has to offer. no having to coordinate schedules or time off of work. then, when i do get to my destination, i can go see the things i want to see. i love history, which some people find truly boring. but i love museums and historical sites, and i know i don’t have to compromise anything i’d like to experience. i can choose to do the things i enjoy, and make memories i’ll carry with me the rest of my life.
i’ll have to end up with someone equally as adventurous. someone with the same zest for new expeditions. but for now, i’ll do as much as a i can before my travels are few and far between. if you’re single and able to embark on a journey to some place you've always wanted to see, then i encourage you to go while you have the ability to take off at the drop of a hat for a fraction of the cost it would take for an entire family to go.
travel opens our eyes and hearts to experiences outside of our own little world. go, enjoy, and make happy memories.
“we travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.”
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