“Often I feel I go to some distant region of the world to be reminded of who I really am.  There is no mystery about why this should be so.  Stripped of your ordinary surroundings, your friends, your daily routines… you are forced into direct experience.  Such direct experience inevitably makes you aware of who it is that is having the experience.  That is not always comfortable, but it is always invigorating.”

Michael Crichton, 1988

Welcome to wanderoverhere.

Who?

Hey! I’m Harley.  Nice to meet you.  I’m a girl constantly on the lookout to gratify my curiosity about the world through travel.  My first taste was a hop across the pond to France when I was 14.  I returned 4 years later to explore a little more of Europe, and 3 years after that (this past summer) went straight to the Land of the Rising Sun to live and study for 2 1/2 months.  And I can’t ever get enough.

What?

wanderoverhere is a travel blog aimed at inspiring travel and learning in others.

Travel teaches and brings us back to ourselves; no matter who you are or where you’ve been there’s always something to be learned.

Where?

Here, there, anywhere, everywhere, and nowhere.

Travel is as familiar as our bodies, the earth, the wind, and is at all times and places a point of reference for metaphors, and a resource of meaning.

When?

Always.

Learning takes place constantly; while traveling, after, as reflection.  It just takes a minute to recognize the value and closeness travel and learning have.

Why?

Because it’s not just about learning where the cool vacation spots are.

A vacation is an escape from life; travel is the capture of it.

Travel

Weaves the fabric of our lives

Allows for self discovery

Necessitates an awareness of self

Develops character

Enhances intelligence

Reminds us who we really are

Offers a chance for reflection

Validates our curiosity

Enables a sense of overall well being

Revitalizes our way of seeing the world

Helps us connect with others

Erects lifelong memories

Requests a test that brings a certainty of self

Enables the greatest learning of all

The goal is to share what I and others have and continue to learn through travel and to encourage others to do the same.

So, wherever you are from and whoever you are you can wander.  Be it by your feet or your brain, or both; explore, discover, inspire, travel, learn.

…wanderoverhere.