I travel a lot. But occasionally I get asked “Why”. The answer to that is pretty simple and comes down to three simple things.
1. When I just out of high school (18 years old ish) I had no clue what I’d be doing for a living. My first real job out of high school was working Tech Support at an Internet Service Provider (ISP). I liked working with computers, and I’ve clearly stuck with it. Like most Americans, I had no idea that I’d have a chance to see much if any of the world outside of the US. I wasn’t sure what I’d do, or where I’d go. And I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve been able to see as much of the world as I’ve been able to so far. What this rambling reason really means is that because I can, I do. The world is a very cool place full of some exciting things, and I’ve been fortunate to be able to see as many of them as I can.
2. I’ve made a ton of friends around the world and many of them I wouldn’t get to see very often if I didn’t travel so much. Sometimes these folks see me in San Diego, sometimes they see me in other cities like Seattle, it just depends. Some perfect examples come to mind (I’m sitting in a hotel in Amsterdam as I’m writing this); tonight I’m having dinner with a friend from Holland since I happen to be in town; or when I saw a friend from Slovenia every month for about a year because we happened to go to the same conferences every month. It’s so cool to be able to see friends that live all over the world instead of just catching up with them in letters or online.
3. By going to some of the places that I’ve been, I’ve been able to meet people that I would never have met before and seen things that I would never have seen from one. A perfect example of that is when I went to Saudi Arabia to speak at a conference there. We had an extra day between arriving and the conference so a bunch of us when to visit the National Museum that was a few blocks away. We were able to tour the museum, which most people wouldn’t be able to do simply because of the cost of getting there and the fact that Saudi Arabia doesn’t have any way for tourists to visit. You either go there on business, or you don’t go there.
So as to why I travel so much really boils down to these three things. I definitely understand that I’m fortunate to be able to travel, especially as much as I do, especially considering my health issues from just a couple of years ago. So because of all of this, I travel as much as I can, as often as I can (yes, I work when I travel) so I can see places and meet people because there’s a lot to see out there and I want to see as much of it as I can.
Denny
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