Go Away!

I come from a nomadic tradition in which much was temporary and the world was a big, big place. For generations, we have lived in multiple countries on different continents, and travel was as normal to us as walking to the store, all while maintaining our family connections and traditions. As an adult, I traveled extensively for work, spanning four continents, encountering new people and cultures, learning constantly, and having great fun in the process.

Then, the pandemic descended upon us and we locked down at home. For over two years, my world was limited to the close and the familiar, and that, too, became wonderful, but in a different way. Local parks became my travel destinations, local streets my highways, the garden my forest, and the kitchen my amusement park. I walked the same well-trodden paths daily and never ventured farther out from home than a car could take me in a leisurely day trip. My experience became smaller, as the wide world receded in distance and faded from memory.

When travel restrictions were lifted, and we were once again able to fly, I had to relearn what before had been muscle memory. Packing took much longer, getting to the airport was more stressful, and just making my way from the curb, through security, and to the gate felt strange and unfamiliar. Most things hadn’t changed. In fact, the whole travel experience was much as it had been two years before. But I was different. Two years of being homebound had made me more timid, less adventurous, unsure of myself. I had become more insular, less accustomed to seeing people in person, and more introverted.

While I’m confident that this is temporary, and that with time and exposure, I will once again venture confidently into the world and interact with people as I had before, I can’t ignore the impact of being confined within a limited space on my state of mind. I’m also not the only one. What has this confinement and separation done to us as a species? How has it impacted our openness to new experiences and people? How far has it set us back in venturing outside our familiar environments and embracing different people from other cultures or opposing ideas? Have we lost our curiosity and become strangers to each other? Have we become afraid of the unfamiliar?

But the fear of the different and the unfamiliar didn’t start with the pandemic. Many people haven’t had the opportunity to travel the globe, see its wonders, and encounter different people or cultures. Spending lifetimes close to home it’s possible to lose perspective. We might lock ourselves behind barricades, imagining strangers to be our enemies, and peering out the peephole in terror for our lives. But it doesn’t have to be that way. While we could continue to close our minds in fear, we might instead choose to step outside the garden gate to embrace the adventure that beckons where the path winds out of view.