I Guess I'm A Homebody...But, I Like Being A Homebody

 A few weeks ago, an interesting post made its way into my Facebook feed. It's like a poll of where a person has lived, stayed, visited, stopped, passed through, wanted to visit, and never been. I usually never participate in these fact-finding exercises, but I thought this one might be fun--not necessarily for the benefit of others, but for my own curiosity. 

Before I started filling out my information, I sort of knew what the answer would be...

I was right.

I've seen the Western United States...The Eastern, not so much.

And if you were to remove a trip to pick up my brother from his LDS mission (Hawaii...), a flight home from my LDS mission (New York, Illinois...), and two college choir tour trips (Georgia, Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia...), all states east of Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and New Mexico would all be white. Without those trips, I would have set foot in eleven states.

Eleven...

5.5% of the United States.

As I've gotten older, I've seen friends and family travel all over the world. With the help of social media, I've been able to share their experiences, in a way. I see the selfies at incredible beaches, spectacular mountain tops, even famous churches and temples. And I'm happy for them. They're making lasting memories and it's obvious it's worth it to them to go.

As with many things in life, I have a choice when it comes to how I feel about family and friends traveling all over the world. I could be jealous and wish it was me and my family in front of incredible beaches, spectacular mountain tops, and famous churches and temples.

Or...

I could enjoy my homebody life. When I was growing up, I sometimes felt bad that I would never be able to do all the things I wanted to do, or live in all the places where I would want to live. There just wasn't enough time, not to mention the costs. I've found wanting things beyond my grasp only leads to heartache. Almost sixty years of experience supports this philosophy.

When I think about all the places I could go, I think about all the places I can afford to go to that are close by, that are in the 5.5% of states I've already seen. There's still hundreds of incredible places in my home state I haven't seen. The exercise confirmed something I already knew...I'm a homebody, and that's fine with me.