Wandering Souls...

In response to Brittany Guntor's question, "Why do some people feel such a strong desire to travel?"...

     I really love to travel. Every summer while I was growing up my family would take my siblings and I on at least one vacation, and that is when I began to realize how interesting it was to see Massachusetts, the rest of the United States, and eventually other countries. As I got older I developed an interest in history, and a desire to be an archeologist. I find the people of other cultures fascinating and absolutely love studying anthropology at M.C.L.A. But, why do I have such a fascination with travel and other peoples? I believe it has to do with the law of diminishing marginal returns, which is the idea that the first glass of water you drink when you are extremely thirsty will be the most satisfying, but the third glass will definitely not be as satisfying. Last semester in Art and Philosophy we applied this idea to the human desire for artwork that is new and different, and now I believe this concept can be applied to humanity's love of travel as well. We always want to see places that we have never been to before. We are fascinated by "exotic" things. All throughout history people have felt the need to explore this planet, and once they had seen everything on earth, they began to explore outerspace. This makes it seem that the need to move and travel is part of our nature. It is within some animals' nature to kill other animals for food, and it appears to be in our nature to explore our environment. Perhaps we developed this characteristic to protect ourselves, because by inspecting our surroundings, we can ensure we are not in danger. But it seems that the need for travel might have deeper motives than that. When we go on journeys after all, we often discover more about ourselves. Do you believe it is important for people to travel? Is remaining stationary as many did in the past more beneficial than our constant need to travel today?