I came across this “cartoon” just today, as I’m sitting here trying to think about being an “Indie Traveler.” The gist of it is: “You’ll never see the end of your own story, so maybe you should throw in some more sub-plots.”

And that’s what traveling has always been for me: developing more sub-plots to a story that is already writing itself. Sometimes those sub-plots take me on group tours of the Serengeti, and sometimes they give me the crazy idea to move to Morocco to teach English alone. Sometimes they take me to Paris and sometimes they take me to the canyons of Utah. Sometimes I’m a student, and sometimes I’m a teacher. I’ve wandered lost, and I’ve wandered aimlessly, and I’ve known exactly where I’m going.

In some of my sub-plots, I’m terrified; in some I’m confident; in some I’m sexual; in some I’m naive; in some I’m just too young or too old or too shy or too in-your-face.

Most of my sub-plots include falling in love. Falling in love with a song, falling in love with an idea, falling in love with a place, falling in love with a single, impenetrable moment. Falling in love with a person, if only for a month, a week, a night. Forever. But always falling in love.

And it’s everything. All the time.

There’s no dipping a toe in or checking the wind speed.

It’s feet first, all in.

Does this make me an “Indie Traveler”? I don’t really know. But what I do know is that these are my stories I’m writing, my sub-plots. And when it comes to being an Independent Traveler, that might be the most important part.

Who’s writing your stories?

This is in response to BootsnAll‘s 2012 Indie Travel Challenge, Week 2 prompt: What do you think make someone an indie traveler? The full description of the prompt can be found here.