The Urge to Roam
- February 25th 2008
- Uncategorized
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about what it is that inspires some humans to roam around the globe and why some people feel no particular need to travel. Why is it that some of us find our life’s work and inspiration in the furthest reaches of the furthest forest on the furthest continent from our place of origin and others of us have no desire to go further than a day’s walk from where we were born?
For me, the overwhelming, all-encompasing drive to travel the world has always been a part of my being. I tend to think that there is something deeply genetic in this, as the women of my lineage have always been ones familiar with tossing caution to the wind in search of our hearts. My great-great grandmother came to America by boat seeking adventure and inspiration and found a rich husband and a life for herself here. Her daughter threw the stability created by her mother’s hard work to the wind and ran off with the stable boy, which lead to her disenheritance and disgrace. Despite this, the two of them established for themselves a life in the rural hills of Pensylvania where her daughter was born and raised. My grandmother escaped Pensylvania not long after the birth of her second daughter and she and my grandfather thrived together on the spirit of adventure, moving every 6 months until their death. My mother, raised amidst these turbulent moves, established for us deep roots and a family home, but after we were all ‘launched’ is now rediscovering her desire to travel the world. She jokes that we are all of us gypsies at heart. Perhaps we are.
Maybe it is something genetic after all, that drives some to wander and some to set down roots. Geneticists would like this, for it keeps populations constantly changing as some move out and others move in. Indeed the survival of a population depends on this changability as it provides for greater genetic varriation over time as well as limiting the possibilities of potentially harmful genetic mutations.
And yet, as much as the desire to roam thrums through my veins with my very blood I also crave stability. I work dilligently each day to create a lifestyle of home and hearth that is so at odds with my desperate desire for travel. Perhaps this is the result of socialization on my genetic structure. Society calls me, the nest-builder, the home maker, the hearth keeper, to create stability in a chaotic world. Yet nature still whispers in my ear the wonders of foreign lands. For now I listen to and follow the instructions of society, but I wonder- how long can one’s nature be resisted?
People joke that my desire to travel is “in the genes” as well, going back several generations, including my grandfather being born in China (although I’m not of Chinese decent).
However, my brother doesn’t have the same desire…so maybe socialization has a stronger effect on some than others??
It is really curious how travel gets in some people’s blood while it makes other people’s blood curl with the thought of a strange environment, foods, language and everything else that comes with getting outside the comfort zone.
I think it must be one of those genetic things that skips around and hits some people harder than others. In my immediate family, my desire to travel is certainly the strongest. My dad, while he enjoys roadtripping across the U.S., would probably be perfectly content to never leave the country. My mom enjoys visiting other countries, but primarily well-developed countries (i.e. Europe). My three brothers have varying degrees of travel desire, and I’m thinking that one or another might end up with a desire to match mine, but they haven’t shown it yet (though the youngest is 7 years behind me, so he still has time), though they have all ventured out of the U.S. and enjoyed it.
Hummm…
Thanks ladies for your input - perhaps it is genetic but then a trait heightened by the female gene in some generations?
Or perhaps it’s like diabetes- simply skips around…
Great experience to visit this blog after especially known about the merits of travel.