Why I would rather fall in love with a place than a person?

Love is amazing. We, as Indians, have seen all these fascinating movies growing up revolving around love. So being a typical SRK fan, I always had this imagination of being in love with someone as close to Raj or Rahul. But as I grew up and got hit with his thing called adulthood, I faced reality. Then there was this profound attraction for travelling which grew with time. And as I travelled places, I realised love was not only bound to people, it can be felt for anything or anyone. I am not going to condescend relationships or marriage or people who are truly in love. But I am going to write why I fell in love with travelling and why I would prefer to choose places over people?

1. Travelling never disappoints

Travelling comes with no complaints and no demands. It will not leave you midway. Travel to far off places and even if you lose track of the route, you will find your way back home. It teaches you, helps you, and never fails to amaze you. Doesn’t matter where you end up going, it will only bring amazement and joy.

2. In the world of no strings attached, travelling is long term commitment

Today, casual hook-ups are the “in” thing and it is so easy to be emotionally disconnected and physically connected to someone that the essence of relationship is lost somewhere. Committing to a person is scary for me because I don’t know how it will end up. But committing myself to travelling makes my heart fill with so much love because I know this is something that can never let me down. If someone asks me to give up everything and travel, I will do it in a heartbeat because at the end, the only thing I get is happiness.

3. Travel gives me incomparable joy and a sense of accomplishment

When you visit a new place, meet new people, see new things, there is this sense of happiness. And this happiness cannot be found in any other thing. The accomplishment I feel when I hike up to the peak of a mountain and watch the sun rise from behind the clouds is something that money can never buy. That smile on my face when the ocean touches my feet and the salty air kisses my face, is of pure joy. And these feelings cannot be compared to anything else in the world.

4. Travelling accepts me as I am

It is easier to fall in love with travelling because it lets me be my true self. I don’t need to pretend, to be socially correct, to care about others, etc., etc. That moment when I am sitting in my camp with just nature around me, juggling around with my thoughts, is the moment when I can let myself loose. It lets me be who I am without the pressure of being judged by others. It teaches me to be myself no matter what the situation is. It accepts me with all my emotional baggage.

Today social media has made people so connected yet so disconnected that getting in and out of relationships is limited to just a text message. And in some cases, not even that. No one is ready to make efforts to fix things. Jumping between love interests has become a piece of cake and all of this brings along huge disappointments. And in the same world, travelling helps me to realise that falling in love does not require a human being. I can fall in love with simple things in life such as a view, a mountain, a beach or an animal and it would never disappoint me. I know a lot of you understand what I mean and a lot of you don’t. For those who don’t, I would advise you to go and travel to far off or nearby places and leave everything else behind. Because someone truly said that travelling first makes you speechless and then turns you into a storyteller. And I am content being in love with travelling.