Date a Girl Who Travels

(Mt. Pulag, Benguet. 19 October 2013)

Date a girl who travels because she has a relentless thirst for doing new things – or, and this is even better, doing new things with you. Date a girl who spends her free time looking for new places to go to, digging for new bargains, talking to new people, because it means she knows that far beyond the things she knows are real are the realities of other worlds as well. You may think that a girl who travel is an escapist, and may thus leave you if things go wrong, but you have to remember that a girl who loves to travel knows that not all travelling is smooth-sailing. A girl who travels is flexible. Because she knows that not all itineraries can be followed, she’s learned to deal with stuff as she goes along – and she knows that leaving in the middle is not at all the purpose of travelling.

Date a girl who travels. She may have bruised knees and calloused hands caused by incessant moving and going around, but know that when she touches your hands and brushes away the stray pieces of hair from your forehead, that will be the gentlest touch you’ll know – because while she knows that travelling involves a certain kind of roughness, she also understands that the best way to appreciate the beauty of the world is through grace.

Date a girl who travels because she knows that the best kind of life is the simple one. A spontaneous trip up the mountains, five minutes on the ledge of the city overlooking the rest of the world, a brief interaction with the locals of a specific country, backpacking – all these will excite the girl who travels, because she knows that the most beautiful interactions with the world are the interactions that do not involve elaborate schemes, but intimate connections.

You’ll know a girl loves travelling because she’s always up for anything. She has a book always on the ready, a camera that’s perpetually charged, and a heart that’s excited for what adventures may lay ahead. A girl who loves to travel also loves art, because she knows that while she can’t attempt to justify the beauty of the world through her writings, or her songs, or her drawings, then at least she can try. A girl who loves to travel finds travelling bittersweet, for while she is jubilant that she has all the opportunities to be as close to the heavens if she wants to, she also knows that not everyone can experience the things she does, and she wants – severely, at that – everyone to know how great the world is. Maybe that’s also why she loves art so much.

Date a girl who travels because she understands her minuteness and her insignificance in the whole scheme of things, but far from letting this fact eat her alive, it replenishes her. She knows she is insignificant, but it doesn’t mean she will remain to be that way. A girl who travels will make everyone around her be much more — feel much more. She will make you feel like the stars in the night sky, and she will go through life as though life was the heavens. A girl who loves to travel understands that everything created is full of wonder – that she is beautiful, that you are, and that the future is. And for her, that will be enough to live.

When you see her being frantic over her workload, go to her. Talk to her calmly and relax her frazzled nerves by telling her about your favourite scenic spot, or about that hilarious time you two were almost left by the bus because she was too busy chasing the little Igorot kids taking photos with her cell phone. Show her photos of people sandboarding in the Middle East or skiing in the Alps and murmur in her ear how you just can’t wait to bring her there – in the future you set for the two of you. Feel her heartbeat soften and her breathing become level, and know that wherever it is she might go, she will be fine as long as she’s travelling with you.

A girl who travels will bring out the best in everyone because she has learned the art of unmasking the beauty in hidden places. She knows all the perfect side trips, the white sand beaches hiding inconspicuously among crowded shores, the best time to sit on the park benches just when the leaves of Autumn start to fall, the store with the waist-high collection of stacked books just waiting to be perused by their future owners… she also knows the best way to a person’s heart, who a person is underneath, even why a person is who he is.

Don’t fret if you do not travel, or if you do not feel comfortable staying out for long periods of time. You’ll learn to love it. You’ll see the gleam in her eyes when she sees an opportunity to go around and you will feel a tug in your heart when you realize you want to explore this world with her; that while you don’t necessarily love to see the sights, you’ll want to see her – in her happiest, in her most serene, in her most beautiful – and for you, that will be all that is necessary; for you, that is all the impetus you need to go and search as well.

She’ll love you for it, and you’ll love her even more – if that was possible.

Finally, date a girl who travel because a girl who loves to travel appreciates you better. When she grows tired and the sun has set, she will want nothing but to nestle in your arms and listen to you sing songs about anything and nothing. When the two of you grow old and your sons and daughters have left to find themselves through travelling as well, you and her will spend hours on the verandah just looking into the sky and there will be no need for words, because you have said enough when you were travelling. You will realize then that indeed, life is one big journey, and to best live it, one has to continue to search, and pry, and find things that were always there but were never really given attention to. You will put her hand on top of hers, and she will lean her head on your shoulder, and that’s when you’ll learn why you ultimately have to date a girl who travels — a girl who travels knows the value of home; and she will find it in you.