Flightster

The 20 Signs You’re a True World Nomad. Plus One More.

• by Lauren Rains
• on February 10th, 2011
• 7 Comments

1. You can say “Beer”, “Thank you”, “Please”, and “No!” in several languages other than your native tongue.  Furthermore, you still say it in your own country without even realizing it.
2. Getting lost driving in your home country doesn’t upsets you, but rather lets you pleasantly reminisce of your days abroad getting lost in big cities and relying on the finger pointing of locals to get to your destination.
3. Every time someone tells you, “Oh I want to go to (insert country)” you’re response is pretty much always, “Oh I’ve been there!”
4. You try to convince your friends that staying in a Hostel is nothing like the movie Hostel, yet they still believe that the Westin is the only safe place to stay.
5. All you need to do is send out a Tweet saying, “I’m in (insert city, country) and need a place to stay and a partner to grab a drink with” and you get bombarded with DMs from fellow traveler friends.
6. You’ve already vouched to take your kids to see the world as soon as they’re old enough to walk.
7. The majority of your friends and family back home who haven’t traveled roll their eyes every time you tell yet another travel story.
8. When people “travel” to Aruba for 1 week on a cruise ship you can’t help but think that’s not real travel. Although the buffets on those ships wouldn’t be so bad after long stints on the road.
9. When writing down your New Year Resolutions it pretty much always lists a country you’d like to visit or at least begin saving up to visit.
10. You have a playlists on your mp3 player titled “Sleep on Plane Mix”, “Exploring Unknown Streets Mix”, and “Random Local Foreign Music Mix”.
11. You have some sort of ridiculous collection from every single place you’ve been which you proudly display in your home where all can see. (My fridge is covered beautifully with magnets.)
12. You’ve spent at least one night sleeping in an airport.
13. You are absolutely bewildered when people say things like, “Traveling is too expensive.” or “I wish I had what it takes to go abroad.” or “I just don’t really have an interest in seeing the world.”
14. If someone does ever say to you any of the above, you can’t help but spend the rest of the conversation trying to convince them otherwise.
15. You’ve tried every kind of crazy street food, and you’ve passed one of the most grueling tests of a traveler: food poisoning.
16. You’ve taken a plane, followed by a train, then a bus, then a cab, then a boat, and finally walked a mile to get to a certain destination.
17. When people ask you what you’re favorite food is you’re answer is always some crazy, can’t-find-ingredients-in-the-US-easily, local dish you had at a tiny hole-in-the-wall restaurant in some foreign country.
18. It’s not uncommon for you to say, “Oh yea my friend in (insert country with different time zone, different hemisphere, different language) does that, I’ll ask them!”
19. It’s not weird for you to save up all your money and spend it on a plane ticket rather than a big screen TV, a new car, or new clothes.
20. You’re the only one of all your friends that has people’s actual physical residential addresses so you can send postcards.
21. When asked, “What makes you feel happiest in life?” you already know the answer is, “Exploring the world”.

For me, the last test, number 21, is the most important sign that you’re a true traveler. When asked, “If you could do the one thing that makes you happiest for the rest of your life, what would it be?” and the answer that rolls of your tongue so naturally is you’d drop everything and embark on a never-ending journey, well, then you know that you’re an explorer of the world and of life at your root and core. It’s that love for exploring uncharted territories, learning about people and culture and customs so different from your own, and just placing yourself in a way of life that lets you learn and see something new every single day beyond your wildest imagination.

No matter what kind of journey we’re on be it traveling a country, embarking on a new career, starting on a new project, beginning a new relationship, we should always live veraciously. It only takes a little fear-crushing, risk-taking, wild-living to say yes to these 21 signs for travel, and the equivilant 21 signs related to any other part of our lives.

Although I will say that if we can avoid the food poisonings of travel and life, we can still be true world nomads!

NEVER STOP EXPLORING!!!

World Nomad Image Credit

Lauren Rains

Lauren Rains is a crazy, sexy, cool chick on a mission to live a life of abundant adventure, meaning, and substance. She is addicted to the following: WORLD TRAVEL: Experiencing new languages, cute boys, outdoor adventure, crazy transportation, variations on toilets, cultural differences and similarities, crazy food. Everything! WEB 2.0: Web design to social media, she's proud to be a dedicated geek. ENTREPRENEURSHIP: At 12 months she knew she couldn't work for the Machine. WRITING: Check out TheMadtoLive where she blogs about how to live the wild, crazy and meaningful life we're all meant to live! You can also start up a conversation with her about the meaning of life on Twitter at @LaurRains.