Is This The Best Way To Preserve Your Travel Memories (And Sanity)?

"All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone." Though the philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote these words in 1654, they still ring true over three centuries later. As Covid-19 has resulted in a mass lockdown throughout the country (and indeed the world), the stir-crazed side effects of said isolation is a pandemic all its own.

But, before I reveal the solution to restoring your sanity amidst the ongoing distancing of the self, a confession: Before quarantining this past March, I was—to put it lightly—the opposite of locked down. As a travel writer, I ventured to 41 countries in the past 23 months under the guise of professional advancement and personal fulfillment—never staying in one place long enough to unpack my bags and catching the next flight like it would be my last.

Though no one on the planet could have predicted the virus's ferocious spread back in 2018, it's safe to say I'd spent the past two years traveling as if a plague was coming. One that would confine you to your trustiest, most reliable form of shelter—for celebrities, a Beverly Hills mansion, for others, perhaps a one-bedroom apartment. For me: My childhood bedroom. (Travel writers aren't known for maintaining stately personal residences.) And, though my years of traversing the globe seemed to fly by in minutes, the past two months in lockdown seem to have lasted two lifetimes and more.

I'd argue that it's not only the absence of variety that has caused the widespread blues while sheltering-in-place but also the lack of freedom of movement. It's losing the mere possibility of venturing beyond our mundane day-to-day lives that's caused such a tremendous dearth of inspiration and excitement. You don't need to be a professional globetrotter to mourn the sense of opportunity that travel inspires, the idea that you can jet off to France—not today, not tomorrow, and, now, maybe not until the end of December. (2021 will be our year.)