Earlier this year, arsenic I group ft successful state number 50, I expected the milestone to consciousness significant. Instead, I realized really small the number really meant.
As a teenager, I became obsessed pinch seeing the world. My first acquisition connected Amazon was a group of 50 mini flags to study each day. I turned to quiz websites for illustration Sporcle to study state capitals and populations erstwhile I should person been solving mathematics equations for school.
At 14, I'd already developed my first awesome recreation goal: visit each country successful Europe. Later that year, aft a travel to Greece, Italy, and France, I was each spot arsenic enamored pinch Europe arsenic I'd imagined I'd be.
Unfortunately, I wouldn't sojourn again for 7 full years. By then, I was 21, successful college, and yet had the state to commencement walking connected my own. Visiting Paris, Amsterdam, and Barcelona reignited the obsession I'd developed years earlier.
I began walking during each schoolhouse break
These trips were acold from relaxing. I planned jam-packed itineraries to spot arsenic overmuch arsenic I could wrong a one- aliases two-week window. There was 1 travel successful peculiar that still makes maine anxious to deliberation about. In June of 2019, my friend and I crammed Greece, Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, and Germany into 10 days. We didn't person clip to sojourn the Acropolis successful Athens.
We spent little than 48 hours successful each spot and were perpetually rushing to drawback the adjacent flight. After checking disconnected the main attractions, location was small clip to acquisition the civilization and history of each place. I retrieve spending much clip successful Split's airdrome than I did exploring the city.
It went for illustration this for my first year of traveling. At most, I would walk 3 days successful each country, sticking mostly to superior cities. At 1 point, I tried to warrant a two-hour layover successful Keflavik arsenic a travel to Iceland.
Social media made recreation consciousness for illustration a competition
Seeing group database the number of countries they'd visited successful their bios reinforced my ain impulse to support score. Looking back, I was utilizing my number successful overmuch the aforesaid way: arsenic impervious that I was well-traveled.
At the aforesaid time, portion of my rushed recreation style stemmed from necessity. Between being a engaged assemblage student and later a full-time employee, I only had truthful overmuch clip to travel.
But erstwhile I was laid disconnected astatine the extremity of 2023 and decided to walk astir of 2024 traveling successful Asia and Australia, those clip parameters became obsolete.
I was capable to prioritize slow recreation alternatively of seeing really galore countries I could compression into a week aliases two. On that eight-month trip, I mostly spent 3 weeks successful each place, sometimes longer.
The longer I stayed, the much I felt for illustration I was really traveling. Instead of only crossing disconnected must-see attractions, I really had the clip to study section history and customs, sojourn lesser-known areas, and acquisition mundane life. In the end, I felt a deeper appreciation for the countries I traveled done slow than the ones I raced through.
Staying longer made room for experiences that would person ne'er fresh into my early itineraries. In Malaysian Borneo, I spent 3 days exploring the Kinabatangan River heavy successful the jungle, watching orangutans, crocodiles, and autochthonal birds on the way.
I took a sailing travel done the Komodo Islands successful eastbound Indonesia and earned my precocious diving certification connected Gili Air, a mini tropical land adjacent Lombok. Those 2 months I spent traveling crossed Indonesia showed maine really culturally and geographically divers a azygous state could be. From Java to Flores, each land I visited had its ain dialect, belief traditions, crafts, and section delicacies.
It's not conscionable astir the numbers
I stopped viewing the countries I had already visited arsenic places I'd "done."
The destinations I cognize champion are the ones I've returned to complete and complete again, and I still observe thing caller pinch each visit. I first traveled to Italy astatine 14 and returned to unrecorded location 10 years later. A travel to Bosnia and Herzegovina successful the summertime of 2025 led maine to found Sarajevo arsenic my existent location base.
Those returns didn't summation my state count. Still, they person fixed maine things that a number could ne'er bespeak — meaningful relationships, caller perspectives, connection skills, and a genuine relationship to each place.
Nowadays, I for illustration planning my trips truthful I statesman aliases extremity successful a acquainted location. I'm ever conscionable arsenic excited to return to the places I emotion arsenic I americium to sojourn location new. There's ever comfortableness successful being backmost successful a spot wherever I cognize my measurement around, person friends and favourite spots, and tin prime up wherever I near off.
I haven't wholly stopped counting.
My extremity to visit each state successful Europe is still live and good — location are 12 near connected my bucket list. Admittedly, I still get restitution from adding a caller state to my Been app, and each milestone is still exciting. The biggest quality is that the number is now thing I way alternatively of thing I chase.
English (US) · 
Indonesian (ID) · 
