Travel is very important to me. But since plane tickets cost an arm and leg and I am not related to Bill Gates or Oprah Winfrey; my traveling opportunities are quite limited. With that being the case, I try to bring pieces of the world to me.
Most of my friends are just as passionate about traveling as I am.
It all started back in high school when a friend of mine went to France, and surprised me by sending me a postcard from Paris. On the back, she wrote what she was doing and what she saw around her at the moment. There is something magical about suddenly being transferred to a moment somewhere half way across the world. A part of me wanted to make a connection with the place this postcard came from. I immediately thumbtacked it on my map, and the project began.
Every time any of my friends goes to a new country, they bring me back a key chain, an ear ring, a postcard, or anything that is small enough to be thumbtacked to the wall. Each new piece brings new curiosity and a thirst for knowledge about that country. Every piece has a story.
I have earrings that were handmade by a lonely old woman in India. There is big sentiment behind something so small. The beauty and intricate detail of the earrings tell a story. One that I am not completely familiar with yet still very happy to be even slightly a part of.
Ideally, I would like to go visit this woman and thank her for making such beautiful things and for giving me a connection to a foreign land. Ideally, I would have a cup of tea and carry out a conversation with her. But since this is not an option for the time being, I would be content with knowing that I have something to connect me to someone with a completely different background and perspective on the world.
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover"
- Mark Twain
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