A few childhood stories sum this up pretty well. First, as a tiny girl I would beg my mom, “Go outside! Go see people!” Second, on a very small plane in not-so-small turbulence, every time the plane would dip and sway, my 2-year-old self would say, “Wheeee!” I still love to watch people and the world, and every picture of a road winding off into the distance makes me want to crawl inside the photo and see what’s around the next bend.
No, I haven’t traveled all over the world. I haven’t sold all of my belongings and backpacked across the continent. Yes, I spend many hours at home on my computer or watching TV or reading a book or whatever else happens to make me realize a whole day has just vanished. But I do like exploring. I’m the one who truly likes taking off and landing in an airplane, the one who sees a random park on a map in Ireland and goes to check it out. The older I get and the more places I see, the more I realize how big the world is and how quickly time moves. It’s time for more flights across the ocean and hikes along the coast.
Countries visited: 22. Bonus: I’ve run marathons in seven of them.
U.S. states visited: 43 (and Washington D.C.). I’ve run marathons in 17 of them.
States remaining: Kansas, Maryland, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, West Virginia
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