What Was Your Childhood Travel Dream?

When you were growing up (or hitting your mid-life crisis), did you have your own personal travel dream?

Was it scaling Mount Everest? Dining under the glow of Paris streetlamps? Lying on the sand in Koh Samui?

For me, I didn’t begin traveling until the end of high school. My family couldn’t afford to take any fancy vacations overseas, so I had to watch with envy as friends returned from Disneyland, Mexico, and other exotic climes.

But in truth, it wasn’t the dream of Mickey Mouse or all-inclusive hotels that danced in my head. It was the vision of standing on a remote beach, somewhere in the South Pacific, surrounded by warm, glassy waves, with nothing but endless horizon before me.

It was my dream to stand on the edge of the earth, (or at least feel like it).

While reading the blog of Vancouver musician Matthew Good, I came across an entry describing the realization of his own travel dream – to stand before the Roman Colosseum.

“I was there, you see, in the city that, since childhood, I had dreamed of seeing. I wanted to run my hands along the rough bricks of the Colosseum, walk up Palatine, walk through the ruins of a civilization that I had long studied and been fascinated by. But in the three days that followed it was like trying to walk with knives being shoved in my stomach.”

Unfortunately for Matt, he was extremely ill at the time. And his travel companion unappreciative. Still, he offers some sage reflection:

“Looking back on it, I’m thankful that, despite the circumstances, I was able to see that place with my own eyes. [...] In the end, what we do in this life comes full circle. I’ll get mine just as all of you will get yours. Just make sure that no matter what happens in-between, that you get to touch your wall.”

What was your travel dream? And did you ever find it?