“Wintergreen gum,” I said, after a moment deep in thought, while walking along the coast in Québec’s Forillon National Park recently. “That’s what it feels like when this breeze blows on me – like I’m walking through a pack of evergreen gum.”
The scenery around me – spiky, deciduous trees; metallic-colored, rocky beaches; harsh, choppy water – was thousands of miles from what I usually surround myself with when I travel, literally and figuratively. And yet in a strange way, I felt just as at home traipsing above the Gulf of Saint Lawrence as I have any of the tropical bodies of water I’ve sought out over the past several years.
I grew up in the midwestern United States, and am technically accustomed to cold conditions, but I’ve always been a hot-weather person at heart. Superficially, the week I just spent on Québec’s Gaspe peninsula, where I’ll be documenting in as much beautiful detail as possible over the next several days, has further emphasized how important it is for me to get over my aversion to the colder areas of the planet, even if the air was quite warm when the wintergreen breeze wasn’t blowing through.
But on a more visceral level, it has reminded me of the important role travel has played in helping me, if not to break out of the comfort zone I’ve lived in most of my life, then to expand it to include people, scenery and situations that might previously have made me extremely uncomfortable.
The evergreen trees that have surrounded me as I’ve explored this beautiful region, a part of the world I wouldn’t have thought to visit even a year ago, perfectly illustrate the energetic state I’ve been trying to achieve through travel. No matter the external temperature, precipitation or light, they stand tall and strong, radiating beauty, grace (and, for what it’s worth, an incredible fragrance!).
How has travel helped you become more evergreen?
Robert Schrader is a travel writer and photographer who’s been roaming the world independently since 2005, writing for publications such as “CNNGo” and “Shanghaiist” along the way. His blog, Leave Your Daily Hell, provides a mix of travel advice, destination guides and personal essays covering the more esoteric aspects of life as a traveler.
