“Where do you want to be?” asked one of my friends as we gorged on our vanilla sundaes late in the evening. We were expressing our want and need to go on road trips to local destinations, and she wanted to know which kind of nature scenario we wanted to see and be in.
Two of the guys wanted to be in the mountains while I and one girl friend wanted to be by the sea. We asked the remaining guy in the group that hadn’t answered yet. He also happens to be our most silent friend. He’d rather listen than speak when we’d hang out. “It doesn’t matter to me,” he smiled coyly. Being women, we weren’t content with his answer and we tried to draw a bit more from him.
“But what is your default? What do you instantly think of?” I pressed.
“It really depends on the mood. I really don’t care where I am,” he responded.
“Yeah, he’s like that. Wherever we are, that’s where you’ll find him. He’s good with wherever we choose to go!” said one of the guys.
“Okay then. But as for me, I just want to be wherever I could see the sky clearly, without anything getting in the way,” I sighed while feeling my heart swell like a balloon inside me. My friend knowingly grinned. They’re used to me getting a tad romantic when I talk about the sky, moon, and stars.
“Oh, wait! I know where I want to be now!” jested our most silent friend. I felt the lilt in his voice.
“I want to be wherever she is!” he grinned slyly. He wiggled his eyebrows, and we all burst into mocking laughter. Our silent friend didn’t really have that “she” in his life yet, so he got tortured for making that punch line.
Eventually, we got over all the teasing and progressed with our other travel plans as a group.
I leaned back in my seat and looked at my friends as they excitedly talked about the places we wanted to go to and the things we wanted to do.
Why do we travel in groups? Is it because the expenses are lighter when shared? Is it because we need each other’s assistance in terms of street smarts, wilderness skills or physical strength to get to where we want to be?
I’m not much into group traveling, especially when there are too many people. Of course, I do travel with my friends and family but I can normally just handle a handful. I want to be able to spend time with each friend, so I’d rather that there were only a few friends with me on trips.
I thought some more about this as the banter of my friends sounded like a faint pattern of squeals and buzzes in a distance. Sometimes, traveling in groups can get frustrating especially when you’re all crammed in your hotel room with little space to wiggle in, or one of you is incredibly vain hogging the bathroom for almost an hour, or one has low stamina for walking long distances, or another complains a lot when you try local exotic food, or yet another declares himself/herself the team leader and ends up dictating every move you make throughout the trip.
So why do we really go through the trouble of planning just to travel in a group? Well, the answer’s pretty simple. There’s so much to see out there, and it actually does feel good when you have someone with you taking in all the glory of this beautiful Earth. Now, just imagine all the moments you and the ones you care for can share.
