Clayton News Daily

I know a few people who have suddenly taken to traveling long distances merely to have the experience of being in a foreign place.

I am impressed, in part, by the ambition. I am more impressed, however, by the want. These few people I have not known as people particularly interested in discovering new things.

I have always been interested in different things myself, but have yet to travel outside the continental United States [if you exclude Washington, D.C.]

I have places, in mind, where I would like to go. Few of them have anything to do with those popular destinations most travelers pursue.

I would like to travel to Asia, for instance, and learn first-hand histories of local villages, towns, and cities there.

I would like to travel, at some point, to some remote places, too - trek through the jungles of India and South America. I think I would enjoy drinking the sweet-less liquor of native people and eating some bitter, special platter from the Orient -- which has not been diluted with Americanism or super-sized American taste buds.

While I think I could get a lot out of traveling now, I do not believe I am altogether ready to get what I want out of it.

For me, right now, it would only be the abbreviated pleasures of going to a beach, amusement park, or some of the casual franchise places.

One reason I think people do travel is to get away from their own sameness - their own daily routines.

At least for that brief vacation, I can understand recess to another foreign place. But for now, though, my meager means have hindered my eager willingness to go wherever.

And perhaps, that, too, is a good thing.

That is to say that, perhaps, I am where I need to be.

Where I want to be may still be where I will end up -- just better prepared.

I want to travel, too, like those few people I know who have figured it out.

I will wait though, and read about the far-flung places I could be now, so that when I go, the experience will be all the more rich.

Johnny Jackson is the education reporter for the Henry Daily Herald. He can be reached at jjackson@henryherald.com or at (770) 957-9161.