Anywhere, But Here.

I am what is commonly referred to as a nomad, wanderer, seeker, vagabond, traveler.

I am unable to stay in one place for too long. I seek change for changes sake. I've moved 5 times in the last 4 years, including 4 different colleges. I cannot stand to stay in one place for long.

Considering this, I am a creature of habit, I am always heading to a new place, a new home, a new life. I am consistently changing things up. So when I read about Baudelaire, starting with the disillusionment of travel, then concluding with the itch for change again, I knew that we were on the same page. We are seeing the same thing "It always seems to me that I'll be well where I am not and this question of moving is one that I'm forever entertaining with my soul." (34)

When I move, I am moving because I am seeking, I am imagining the greatness of another place. The superiority of a new location. Baudelaire describes this as childlike cynicism and idealism, which can be good and bad. But I think that after 4 years of this, i've come to a very healthy balance of the now and the future. I know how to be happy with where I am while I am, and at the same time dream of the thing that will come next. The first time that I moved away I could not wait to move on to the next thing, but now it's become a part of me that I can just live for the time that I am here and move on when it is time for me to depart.

Still sometimes I tend toward the idea of "The destination was not really the point. The true desire was to get away, to go, as he concluded, 'Anywhere! Anywhere! So long as it is out of the world!'" (34) I'm with Baudelaire on this one, sometimes I just want to pack my things and go.

I am what Baudelaire refers to as a poet.