On my nightstand right now is Paul Theroux’s The Happy Isles of Oceania: Paddling the Pacific and I’m loving every minute of it–pen in hand underlining the great passages, talking back to the book as I’m reading along, and dreaming about taking a similar trip someday. Theroux is not only paddling the Pacific, but at the same time his marriage is crumbling and he’s renegotiating his life. What a perfect read for me, right now (and it even has trains–of course it has to have a few trains since this is Paul Theroux of The Great Railway Bazaar, after all).
But what I really want to say in my post today isn’t to wax rhapsodic about Theroux, it’s to say something about myself. I want to be a travel writer. Not as my main gig, perhaps, but in the off-season of my everyday academic life. Travel is my passion, it’s what I save my money for, it’s what provokes and pleases me in a way that nothing else does. I dream about the open road, about trains, planes, and trails. And I love writing. I read travel writing more than all other forms of literature on my bookshelf. And, indeed, that’s about all that’s left on my bookshelf these days besides poetry (and most of that is place-specific poetry that I’ve purchased while traveling). I want to tell the stories of my wanderings–I want to share them beyond my small-ish circle of friends. And I want to widen that circle with people that I meet from around the globe.
Yesterday I sent off a short piece of journey-writing to a major periodical and I realized just how right that felt. I held my breath as I pushed the send key on that submission, and then I fretted for a few minutes about whether it got to its destination safely. And now, I’m riding high. That piece has legs and it will keep walking until it finds a good home. I love that feeling. And I want more…
PS: Yes, I will still keep up with my academic writing, but I need this extra stuff. It’s what keeps the juices flowing…
PPS: Pictures above of me in the graveyard near Harvard Square in February of last year and on The Great Wall 5 years ago…
2 comments
I feel the same way. Cant wait to get back to traveling now that tge dissertationis finally over.
Do you already have a plan to go somewhere? A celebratory trip, perhaps? :)