Become yourself!

by Viktoria Shtereva (Bulgaria)

I didn't expect to find Bulgaria

I am sitting on my chair in my dormitory room trying to figure something out that boggles my mind: what is it about travel that excites me so much? I am trying to recall memories from my last trip and to re-experience in my mind the way I felt when I was there. I felt free. I felt like I could eat whatever I wanted for breakfast because you know “you must try local food and not follow your regular diet”, I felt like I was so far away from anything familiar and everybody who knows me so I could do whatever I wanted and nobody whom I know is there to see me. In a way that sets me free- I could flirt, dance awkwardly, talk to strangers and pretend to be playful, perky and most importantly pretend to be whoever the heck I wanted to be because there is nobody who knows me that can say “wow you are not behaving yourself?!” or maybe I was?! Maybe I am exactly this person which I become when I travel. The feeling of discovering new sides of your personality, sides that you never knew existed for me is a feeling of freedom. Don’t get me wrong I would never mind what people think of me but sometimes in your ordinary life, in your hometown, in the university you go to somehow you lose yourself in this lifestyle, in these boundaries society sets and you forget who you are. Yo feel trapped. When you travel and wake up you can decide what your day would be like - you could go sightseeing but you could also stay in bed or lay on the beach and be lazy the whole day. I seriously love routine. It gives you power, makes you confident, gives you certainty. And who doesn’t love these? But it could never make you feel free. You would always have something to do. Even if you don’t- you can't escape the feeling that YOU MUST DO SOMETHING. And the best thing about travel is that it sets you free. When you travel you experience new emotions which you wouldn’t if u were at home if u were checking things off your daily to-do list. When you travel you meet new people, you could share your most intimate thoughts with these people because you don’t know them and you realize that you could never meet them again and you don’t care about they might think of you. You share stuff with them you could not share even with your friends, family, colleagues. These are one of the best conversations ever because when you talk to your friends you hear the opinion of a certain group which you have been surrounded by for a long time, people you have grown up with, people who live a similar life to yours and have similar interest. When you talk to strangers about some of your deepest feelings, you experience a different state of mind- the one of a person who has lived under very different circumstances and experienced different things in their lives. The best thing about travel is that it sets you free to wander and search for whatever you need - may it be your soul. Travel brings new, unexperienced emotions to your life. Travel makes you wonder. Travel makes you want to try things you would not have thought you would want to try in the first place. I love that when I travel I meet interesting people - people travelling the world for ages, people who have thrown routine in the garbage, people who are free and wild. And when you are around these people you kind of feel the same way, you take a little taste of their lifestyle and that makes you feel alive.