The Benefits Of Being A Wanderlust

August 18, 2016

One of the many things the hubby and I have come to appreciate having moved away from Long Island about eleven years ago, is that we now get to play tourist and make time to do all the things that our day-to-day routine of life never really afforded us to fully enjoy when we lived there. Especially, now that we’ve been living in the city, we find that we enjoy making the drive back to Long Island a lot more exciting. And if you follow me on Instagram, then you must have gotten a peek of our anniversary staycation there. With an upcoming open road trip, we decided to spend our anniversary exploring places that we’ve always wanted to see but never got around to checking out. Right after breakfast and exchanging gifts, we made the drive to our first destination into Roslyn to visit a museum that is totally under the radar – Nassau County Museum Of Art.

So yes, it’s been bittersweet leaving what you know for sure, including a close community of friends that were better than family. However, the benefits of what is experienced by going out of one’s comfort zone are so valuable to discovering your own individuality, as opposed to mindlessly following in the footsteps of everyone else around you – simply because it’s what’s considered “stable”. In this unpredictable life, stability is elusive as sooner or later, we all will be confronted with change one way or another. Of course, not all unexpected changes are bad. The reality is, the experiences gained from having spread our wings, venturing to new places, have made us resilient which is one of the most freeing gifts for coming into your own. Some of the advantages of being a wanderlust are, but not limited to things like:

An expanded mind. When you leave your microcosm that you’ve known all your life, it helps you develop greater thinking ability, examining things differently than the limited understanding of what you’re brought up with. It definitely changes the way you look at the world, because it expands your horizon.

You learn to adapt. If you would have told me that once we moved from Long Island, we would have been moving many more times thereafter to two different states (by choice), I most likely would have said never! But with each move, we looked at every new obstacle as an opportunity to learn something new that we didn’t know about ourselves and grow by setting goals that helped us to look forward.

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger and yields better qualities. No doubt, leaving behind what is familiar is a very difficult thing. The disconnection and loneliness that are experienced in the beginning with all new surroundings and without being around close friends will make you wish that you just could hit the rewind button and go right back to the way things were before. That’s when you come to grips with the idea that in order to survive, it’s best to find positive aspects of the new circumstances that you’re in, which makes you discover what you’re really made of. Thankfully, those hard times drew us closer to each other as a couple and not farther apart. It was important to remember that at least we have each other to lean on. It’s like what Kelly Clarkson’s says in one of her songs “what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.” And that was true in our case.

You get to know yourself well. Sure, getting out of your comfort zone will bring its set of difficult situations that you might not have ever confronted before, but they’ll require you to rely on yourself (instead of others) to analyze things and find ways to survive on your own. Trialsome circumstances give you the chance to know what your strengths and weaknesses are, and before you know it, little by little, you start realizing what you really like and dislike. That’s when you begin listening to your own inner voice and come to accept your own individuality and be okay with who you are.

It teaches you to widen out. Moving away helps you to grow, as it forces you to see the possibilities for new friendships with people from different walks of life that might have gone through the same experience in the past that you’re currently going through or are sharing a similar situation as you are now. Making such connections most often have a domino effect on broadening your horizon as such new friends introduce you to new people, places and things that you never have done before or probably never knew existed.

You live like a tourist. Being in a whole new city makes waking up every day a lot more exciting, because you suddenly have so many new things to look forward to, like exploring what’s around – finding those hidden gems that normally the locals take for granted or never knew were even there. We’ve had much fun introducing places to people in their own cities that are normally off the beaten path of locals.

You collect fond memories. Moreover, one of my favorite things about traveling is the unforgettable memorable moments that are created, giving us the vantage point to look back and reflect on the life lessons every situation/location has taught us (albeit good or bad), and how these have shaped our character in the way we now make decisions.