When I scroll to a random photo in my phone within the last five years, chances are, it’s my fiancée and I somewhere on vacation. Or eating out. Or exploring a new place in our city or local area. That’s funny, because I haven’t considered myself a big traveler since 2013.
Between 2012 and 2013, I visited many US states and cool destinations, including Hawaii, Sri Lanka, Chicago, Mexico, and Canada, among others. After I came back from my abroad-studies, I decided to settle down and get to work. Make a living online, and so on. I didn’t take many flights in the years that followed, and I had no particular intention of changing anything when I met my now-partner.
But somehow, we’ve traveled a lot since being together. First to see each other, since we were doing long-distance for a while, and then also to spend quality time with one another. We’d both fly to the same place and hang out or take a car and go somewhere once we were in the same location. Still, if anyone were to ask, the answer would be clear: My partner is the one driving our travel activities—and yet, that makes me a traveler as well. That’s kind of amazing, isn’t it?
I now have so many more stories to tell. I can scroll to a random picture in my phone and always find a good memory or some inspiration. And I can print 1,000 photos, stick the best ones to the walls in our house, and propose to the woman I want to marry.
The people you love will quietly change you, and that’s a wonderful thing—because when you grow based on love, all your self will ever do is expand.
