All who wander are not lost

I've decided to change this blog from it's original purpose for a graduate course to my own personal use, especially to relay my travels for the summer and all that jazz. I also wrote this post about three weeks ago and just never posted it.... oops :)



With that being said, it brings me to the name of my blog and more specifically, this post. Many have heard the expression that all who wander are not lost. I think that expression decidedly fits my personality. To wander: 1.) to travel about, on, or through 2.) to ramble without a definite purpose or objective. I love to travel, and lately I have been very lucky to have had the means to do so. When I travel I really do hate to have an itinerary. Some sort of a game plan, sure. A mental list of some of the highlights I want to see, ok. But a detailed, laid out plan of every single thing to do, timed out? No thank you. I love to take opportunities, try things out, take things as they come, which is incorporated into my traveling and seeing the world. I want to see the world, but I want to see it on my own time and in my own way. If I go to Rome, of course I want to see the pantheon, colliseum, st. peter's in the vatican, but I also want to take in the atmosphere. Get a vespa, find a local cafe, chill by a piazza, walk under the street lamps, party with some natives. That being said, I've traveled some recently with strict itineraries and some a little lax. Savannah, Orlando, Boise, Washington D.C. , Outer Banks and my million trips back and forth from little Fayette County, Pennsylvania to Raleigh. In my structured trips, Conferences in Orlando and D.C., I found myself looking forward to the "free time" that I would have to try to do something different. I think because of my "wanderings" I am not lost, in fact I think it has made me find myself even more. Every time I see something new, something different, it just makes me reaffirmed in my beliefs, values, morals.



I wander, and wonder, alot. There is a song that this woman sings every Christmas Eve service in my hometown entitled "I Wonder as I Wander." So, from now on, I'll be wondering as I wander. Stopping to take in all the good things. After the fact of an event, I always kick myself for not taking pictures. Then, I realized that it's because I would rather live in the moment, take it all in, instead of worrying about stopping to take pictures. So, from now on, I won't worry about whether I get the picture or not, I am going to take it all in, and live for that exact moment in time.