Christmas is an interesting holiday for me. My relationship with it has changed dramatically over the years, and even more so now that I’ve spent so many of them abroad, in unfamiliar places and surrounded by friends and temporary acquaintances rather than family.
One major change worth noting has been my desire for material things. As a child, nothing created more excitement for me than the idea of Santa sneaking in quietly on Christmas Eve to deliver me the toys I’d been eyeing in the stores for months.
These days, while I’d certainly still covet a thoughtful gift I could take with me on my travels, there are a few things I’d love even more than that.
Here are just a few of the things we travelers truly want for Christmas this year:
We want you to know that we care.
Just because there are often miles, oceans, and time zones between us, that doesn’t mean we don’t care.
When we’re not around for special occasions like Christmas or moments of celebration like birthdays and weddings, we feel the regret all the way down to our bones.
We want you to know that our absence does not equal apathy. We don’t like the distance any more than you do, but we all must make sacrifices when chasing our dreams and this is the price we pay.
We want you to see how incredible the world is.
We may come across as narcissistic, arrogant, and pretentious in our oft-misguided attempts to share our worldly experiences with you, but in reality, we just want you to know that the world is worth seeing with your own eyes.
That the things we’ve seen have moved us in ways we never thought possible, and that we wish you had been there to experience them with us.
We try to bring you along on our journeys not to rub your noses in a life that seems foreign and unattainable to you, but in an attempt to share even one iota of the childlike wonder we’ve felt.
We believe that happiness is only real when shared, and we want to share ours with you.
We want you to make time for us.
Relationships are hard and we know we’re not making it any easier on you to maintain one with us, but we want you to know that a little bit of effort can mean the world.
Carving out a few minutes to chat on Skype every now and again is far more meaningful than a material gift can ever be because it shows us we’re still a priority in your life, despite the distance.
Sending us an email to check in or letting us know you’ve been following along with our journeys is the kind of gesture that makes our hearts swell; it’s a virtual hug when we can’t have the real deal.
We want to know that just because we’re out of sight doesn’t mean we are out of mind.
We want you to know that we’re not judging you from afar.
We get it–not everyone can travel, and not everyone wants to. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
We want you to know that we never mean to insinuate that your life at home is unfulfilling, and if we do, we want you to call us out on it. There’s no room in a relationship between traveler and non-traveler for that kind of judgment when we’ve already got distance to contend with.
All we ask in return is that you do us the same courtesy and resist the urge to ask us what we’re running from, when we’re ‘settling down,‘ when we’re getting a “real job” or when we’re coming home.
Merry Christmas, wherever in the world you may be this year!
