Cara-Lee Gevers

'When I grow up I'm going to travel the world.'

Perhaps your heart can sympathize with mine, it's strings tied to the wings of a plane, to a corner of an undiscovered alley cafe in a big city, midnight dancing with young blood friends, messy hair and feet that have touched the earth of so many continents.

When I was 13 years old my heart told me, that I would see things, fresh vision then what generations before me had seen. That I would be as water, changed by different tides of the oceans my toes touched, rippling through my skin down into my heart. Perhaps our hearts are kindred, of the very same 'travel bug'. Then you would know that travel, will not change you as a person.

It may change the balance in your savings account, it may change the wear of your shoes, the size of your hips or the crisp condition of your passport. But travel will. not. change. you. Yes, looks like I have just crashed every marketing campaign you have seem, every young spirited glossy haired girl running from bus to bus, carefree lying in a mint green field sturdy backpack by her side, stylishly clad lads and lasses on mountaintops snapping memorable selfies {mac why do you try autocorrect selfies, come on now} and bright colored slogans 'LIVE NOW' 'ADVENTURE' or 'WANDERLUST'. Please don't reach for the closest bottle of wine, don't call your best friend to sob about how I have just broken your heart. I'm just here to change it.

Change, the really truly deepening kind, the kind that makes your arms swing open to embrace all of it's petrifying, breath-taking, heart aching beauty. No, this is not a cue for a Billy Ray Cyrus song. You will not be able to buy this, it won't be stuck on the back of your boarding pass, it won't be strategically posted on instagram under #travel #young #happiness and that super styling backpack ain't going to cut it either mate. This kind of change can only happen by and through…. you.

Travel is one of the most beautiful privileges I have had in my life, but I have wasted many opportunities for metamorphosis. I have wasted money on flight tickets, train tickets, lace up leather boots and cut off white-wash jeans in my search, because I thought once I landed, solid soled on the soil of a new continent I would suddenly have a whirlwind of adventure and change happen to my young self. I seemed to believe that adventure would find me, change me, fill me with memories I could tell my grand babies of some day, the young adventurous me. It does not matter where you go, it does not matter the clothes on your back or the 'all inclusive' of your travel program, nor the impressive selfies or the unfortunate hair braids you got while there. The only time travel will change you, is when you agree to let it. That means, you can not buy it, you have to chase it, make it, invest in the discomfort of change hidden under all the marketing and then, LIVE. Travel will give you opportunity, over and over again it will offer you opportunity to live and create, to laugh, to wear mismatched socks, to jump off cliff edges, dance under star glazed skies, to do what you would normally never. In that very contract between yourself an travel, you, will change.

A lot of beauty has been marketed into a porcelain product, adventure is not just for a fortunate few. A child with a cardboard box is always proof of this. You can change and agree to living extraordinary wherever you are, or wherever you go. And when you agree to doing whatever will make your heart sing, live and break free from any bounding restrictions and say yes to showing up for your own life, then little spirit, you will live.

{Images from my instagram- http://instagram.com/caraleegevers }

www.cara-leegevers.com