A friend of mine (and fellow traveler) shared this article with me, titled, “Don’t Date a Girl Who Travels.” At first read, I could relate to every attribute the writer described. But then I got to the ending:

So never date a girl who travels unless you can keep up with her. And if you unintentionally fall in love with one, don’t you dare keep her. Let her go.

I am a girl who travels, but I don’t want to be let go. I just want to find someone who wants to come along for the ride. I don’t think that makes me undatable. In fact, traveling has taught me valuable lessons that shaped who I am today. Traveling has introduced me to so many other like-minded women who are daring, brave, and beautiful because of it.

That’s why you should date a girl who travels. Maybe she’s not skilled at putting makeup on, and maybe she can’t control her messy hair. Maybe she can, and she just doesn’t care. For her, an extra 20 minutes spent getting ready could be better spent exploring her surroundings. And those wrinkles you see? They’re creases from the grin she’s always wearing.

If you date a girl who travels, she won’t be hard to please. She’s definitely not simple, but she can enjoy simple things. Instead of fancy dinner parties, she’ll pick hot dogs and roasted corn over a campfire. Instead of movies, she’ll want home-brewed tea and a good conversation. And if you have stories about hiking glaciers or diving the Great Barrier Reef, she won’t complain if you brag. She’ll snuggle up close and beg you to tell her another one.

You should date a girl who travels, but don’t be surprised when she comes home one day having splurged for a last minute trip to Peru because she found a great deal. This might seem careless at first, but you’ll come to realize that she is quite selective about the things she spends money on. A $250 first-time scuba dive off the coast of Oahu to see sea turtles? It’s all hers. A $100 ticket for a New Year’s Eve party at a bar she can go to any other night of the week for free? She’ll pass. She knows that celebrating lavishly for one night could be the equivalent of an experience she’ll never forget.

If you date a girl who travels, and she has a steady job, you might have to listen to her vent when she feels like it’s slowing her down. You will also have to listen to all of her half-baked, crazy ideas about how she wants to:

A) Give up her stable career to focus on travel blogging as a primary source of income
B) Jet-set across the world to become a sheep farmer in New Zealand in exchange for food and housing
C) All of the above

(Correct Answer: C)

If you date a girl who travels, and you complain about your boring job, she might try to convince you to quit and come with her. And she just might succeed.

You should date a girl who travels because a life of uncertainty doesn’t scare her. It’s exciting because she knows she can handle whatever gets thrown at her. She’s the kind of girl that makes friends with strangers on buses or in public bathrooms. She’s the kind of girl who speaks her mind and follows her heart. She’s the kind of girl whom you can take home to your parents and friends because she is smart, culturally sensitive, and humble. She’s the kind of girl who has a good sense of direction but prefers being lost. She’s the kind of girl who finds comfort in the sounds of foreign languages and feels completely at home in unfamiliar places. She might not know her place in the world yet, but she sure is trying to figure it out. She is strong, courageous, adventurous and daring.

So, you should definitely date a girl who travels. Give her a chance, and try to keep up. Because when the time comes, and she’s ready, settling down with you will be a great adventure too.

This article was originally published on Brave Little Cheesehead, and is republished here with permission.