T is for Travel to All 196 (recognized) Countries in the World

I’ve been looking forward to writing my T since this whole challenge started. This is my biggest and toughest bucket list goal.  It is quite close to my heart. It is also the goal I will be most proud of once achieved.

After I made it to my seventh continent, a goal I thought I would achieve some time in old age and not when I was 28, I had to think of a new even crazier goal.  As avid of a traveler as I am, it wasn’t a far leap to decide to visit every country in the world.

Sometimes it seems oddly possible.  I’ve made a rule for myself that, with the exception of Chile (a piece of my heart is still there and one must always return to where they left their heart) and Vieques, Puerto Rico as mentioned in a pervious post (an exception made because I would actually move there and live and therefore travel from there), I will not return to countries I have already visited.  If I always go to new countries, then if I travel to 2-4 countries a year for the rest of my life, I can do it. I’ve been traveling to at least two countries a year since I’ve been stateside. Also, since I plan to live abroad again, that 2-4 countries becomes much bigger when I travel from wherever it is I move. It’s all entirely possible.

I know some people think this is crazy, and I understand that it is fun to go back to a place you know and love. But I am the same way with many things, books, for example. With the exception of The Catcher in The Rye, which I read yearly, I do not re-read books. There are simply too many books in the world, and I will not read all that I desire to read, if I repeat books. This is how I feel about countries. There are simply too many amazing places to see and discover that I cannot allow myself to revisit any until I’ve seen them all.

I am currently sitting at 44 countries, Cuba being my last. In two short weeks I will fly to Eastern Europe where I will travel around Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, The Czech Republic and Poland for a little over a month.  That will put my number at 49.  This winter, I will travel to The Dominican Republic where I will spend one week celebrating my 50^th country in style at an all inclusive resort with several friends joining me. I think having traveled to 50 countries is certainly something to celebrate, and I intend to fully commemorate it. From The Dominican Republic, I will spend another week in Haiti touring around. Number 51.

The adventure never stops when you’re trying to see as much of the world as you can in the short life we live, and I don’t want it to. I am fortunate that I have a teaching job in which I can take a term off, unpaid mind you, but off. I am also fortunate that I can return to this job after seven weeks gone.  It is also a job that gives me a lengthy, albeit unpaid, winter break as well.  This gives me lots of time to travel.  And although I don’t usually think of it as lucky that I do not have kids and a family, for purposes of traveling, it sure is convenient.  It also helps with the money it takes to get to all these places.  Though I will still travel once I have kids, they will just make it even more of an adventure.

And while putting it all out here on the page and thinking of the logistics of doing this makes it seem almost easy, sometimes it feels entirely overwhelming and even impossible. Can I really keep up with 2-4 countries a year once I’m older, or have kids and other obligations?  Will some countries be impossible or off limits?  But then I just remind myself how impossible I thought it would be to get to Antarctica, my seventh and final continent, and I am renewed and re-motivated and for a tiny moment I remember that I can do anything I set my mind to.