stage one: the engagement 

You bought your ticket. You made the leap. Your emotions are fluttery and everything will be amazing. Your big move is all you can think about, all you can talk about, all you dream about! Your friends are about to board you on the plane themselves because they don’t want to hear anymore about your next big adventure. You don’t know exactly what you’ve done, but dammit you’re excited. This stage lasts the moment you commit until…

stage two: panic

You almost crash your car when all of a sudden it clicks. You are packing up your entire life to go on some wild adventure. You’re not ready. Your flight leaves in hours, not days, not weeks. You don’t know where your passport is. 

stage three: honeymoon

You are on the plane. You made it. You didn’t die. You’re there. You start falling in love with all of the new things. And everything is amazing! The plants are different, the language is different, the sky seems bigger. You fall in love everyday with a new piece of culture. You never want to leave and you definitely don’t miss home. This stage usually lasts about a month until…

stage four: the separation

Everything is horrible. All of those peculiar things about your new home are no longer “quaint” and “quirky” but annoying as hell. You want to go home. You want a shitty cup of american dinner coffee. You want to hug your mom. And live down the street from your best friend. You are lost. You begin to wonder why you even came in the first place. You google plane tickets home. You avoid skyping your mom because you don’t want to cry. 

stage five: the real love 

Now, this one sneaks up on you. Little by little you stop googling flights home. You start making your life something that you feel comfortable in. You have a bit of a routine. You come to terms with the things that annoy you and start focusing on the things you love instead. This love is more mature than the infatuation you previously held. It’s a fuller type of love, more robust. It understands more. And not just about the place itself, but about yourself.

Traveling the world teaches us not just about how other people live, but also, perhaps more profoundly, it teaches us about ourselves.