We can get into our cars and drive through the night,
crossing as many state lines as our pockets will allow. We can sit in our beds
in the middle of our dark rooms and spontaneously purchase a plane ticket to
anywhere in the world at four o’clock in the morning. We can hop on a bus, a
train, a ferryboat. We can decide that in the grand scheme of things, we aren’t
happy with who we are, and we can convince ourselves that miraculously, a
change of scenery will change us.
But it won’t.
With the reputation that Hawaii holds, it might as well be
considered one of the Seven Wonders. Ask a handful of randomly selected people
where they’d like to travel in the United States and there’s a pretty big
chance that Maui will make the cut. The island is a tropical paradise, known
for it’s beauty and serenity, for it’s mountains and valleys, for it’s
snorkeling and surfing, for it’s history. One might travel far and w i d e to
experience it’s cleansing. One might convince himself that Maui can fix him.
But I think we forget that we are still ourselves. We still
have our baggage, our faults, our addictions, no matter our geographic
location. We are not characters in a video game. We will not reach a magical
checkpoint in our ventures from place to place that eliminates our
shortcomings. No star on the map will do it. No toll we pay will do it. No terminal
we walk through will do it.
I think about my upcoming trip to Seattle. Then I realize it’s
where Kurt Cobain committed suicide. I long for the streets of Paris, and then I
think about how Nadja ended up in a psych ward there. I think about the shores
of Maui and realize that right now, someone’s mother is suffering an alcohol
addiction amidst its paradise. And I realize that it’s about who we are, not
where we are. Our issues and personal downfalls won’t pass until we fight them
internally. New scenery might distract us for a while, but it won’t permanently
change who we are.
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