A lot of things have changed over the years: milkmen no longer deliver glass containers to the house, we almost never write with pen and paper anymore, and you know longer need a quarter to call home. But one thing has remained steady: we share, we connect, we learn through story. Seeking stories help us make sense of our lives. They give shape to the chaos, meaning to the mundane, and language to the things we feel but can’t articulate.
And travel? Well, travel simply gives us new material to work with.
We Seek Stories Because They Help Us Understand Ourselves
Stories are mirrors. They reflect all the micro moments that make us. They also reflect what we are looking for, even when we may not realize it.
We turn to stories when:
- Life feels too big
- Life feels too small
- We’re standing at a crossroads
- We’re trying to remember who we are
- We’re trying to imagine who we could be
Stories give us a way to see ourselves from the outside with clarity we can’t access when we’re tangled in the middle of our own lives. When the forests are too big for us to see the trees (because adages are adages for a reason), we can turn to stories to show us the way down a deeply shadowed path. We can turn at them for comfort. We can turn to them to reflect.
We Seek Stories Because They Give Us Safety
When the world feels unpredictable, stories offer structure we don’t always find. They offer a beginning, a middle, an end. There are beats and rhythm to story. And even when our lives don’t offer a resolution, stories give us just that, tied into a neat bow.
That’s why children cling to stories. That’s why adults return to them.
And that’s why travel feels like a story—it has a natural arc that makes us feel held.
We Seek Stories Because They Help Us Feel
Most of us were never taught how to feel our emotions. Older generations were simply taught not to feel. Tears were for wimps, anger was something to squash, fear was nothing more than not trusting enough. Be happy or you’re being too much.
But stories teach us by example.
A character’s grief helps us understand our own. A character’s courage helps us locate ours. A character’s longing helps us name what we’ve been avoiding.
Travel does the same thing:
- A quiet morning in a new place reveals what we’ve been carrying for too long and too hard
- A moment of awe cracks something open and allows tears to flow that you’ve too long suppressed
- A moment of discomfort shows us where we’re still growing
Stories give us emotional vocabulary. Travel gives us emotional experience.
In The End, We Seek Stories Because They Give Us Direction
Stories are maps, but not to places. They are the maps to adding meaning in our lives. Whether fiction or nonfiction, from the bible or from a man passing us in the grocery story, stories exemplify our lives.
They help us answer:
- What matters to me
- What I’m moving toward
- What I’m ready to release
- What I want more of
- Who I want to become
Travel amplifies these questions because it removes us from our routines long enough to hear the answers. And depending on where we travel to, it might also give us the opportunity to grow where we are or understand the bigger stories that we couldn’t possibly know until we experience them.
We Seek Stories Because They Remind Us We’re Alive
A good story wakes something up inside us the same way a new city does. There's that spark of curiosity, the wave of wonder, the promise of a possibility and connection.
Stories and travel both return us to ourselves. They remind us that life is not just something we endure—it’s something we experience.
At the start of your bookish travel planning? Read my full guide here.
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