Always Halfway to Somewhere Else

“Not all those who wander are lost.” — J.R.R. Tolkien

I was 30, standing on a cobblestoned street in Brussels with my 20-year old brother, the air smelling like waffles and beer. A burst of pigeons clattered up into the rafters of the old church, their wings echoing against the stone. Bikes rattled past, and the sky hung low and gray the way it does in northern Europe. We’d been bouncing between Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany for ten days, no agenda, just eating, drinking, and seeing what we could get into. Und Beck’s? Ja Und Beck’s.

It was one of the purest trips of my life. No work. No deadlines. Just see where this takes us. We rode trains through green countryside, wandered into dim, smoky bars with names we couldn’t pronounce, and ate meals that stretched into the night, my brother even had the balls to ask for ketchup for his fries in Belgium, proof that we were exactly where we were supposed to be: a little lost, a little loud, and having the time of our lives.

That trip also reminded me of something I’ve always known: I’m wired for movement. I’ve been moving every few years since I was a kid, first across states, then across the country, now across continents whenever I can.

Some people are happy to stay in one place forever. They know the names of their neighbors’ kids and the bartender at their local. They plant deep roots. I’ve always admired that… and wondered what it would feel like. But for me, staying put is like watching a storm roll in from miles away, I can feel it building before it even gets here.

It’s not just the big trips. Even a day in a town I’ve never been to can light me up. Travel sharpens my senses. I notice smells, sounds, and details I’d miss at home, the way light falls differently in Amsterdam than in Berlin, the taste of beer that could never be brewed anywhere else, the tiny moments that stick for no reason you can explain.

Here’s what I’ve learned:

1. Go without a plan. The best moments are rarely on the itinerary.

2. Follow your senses. Let a smell, a sound, or a color decide where you head next.

3. Embrace being out of place. Discomfort is the price of discovery.

That trip with my brother didn’t change my life in some dramatic way. But it reminded me why I keep chasing the new. Not because I’m lost, but because every unfamiliar street, every strange beer, every wrong turn makes the world feel a little bigger and me, somehow, a little more awake.

"The first time I traveled for this work, it shook me. Now it barely stirs me — unless I choose the uncomfortable path."

Keep Moving,

Matthew James Price
paradisevalleymedia.com
@mjpmontana