There’s a scene in The Motorcycle Diaries where a couple that’s going from town to town looking for work asks a young Che Guevara and his travel partner Alberto Granado why they are traveling. They reply: We travel just to travel. It’s not a concept most people can grasp, especially people like this couple that are moving about just to try and find ways to make money to be able to feed their family.

I was reminded of this story when I read about Matt Green, a young guy that quit his job to walk from New York City to Oregon. (He’s literally walking. I could not make that up.) To most, it doesn’t seem logical. We’re still desperately climbing out of a recession and here’s a guy that quits his because he’s compelled to walk. A journey that he predicts will take him nine months.

I get it. Sometimes, something inside of you just tells you there’s something out there that you need to see. It’s the same feeling I have about traveling. There’s no logical reason for me to do it. I have no clue what I will find. I just can’t shake the feeling that I need to go. It’s taken me a long time to realize that I didn’t need to have any real reason to do it. Like Che, Alberto, Matt and countless others, I travel to travel.

You can follow Matt’s adventures on his Web site, I’m Just Walkin.

No related posts.