Too Old To Suffer From Wanderlust

Today a friend of mine mentioned wanting to travel to Thailand and I realized that while long ago I may have had a similar desire, I no longer wish to go there; in fact I confessed to not wanting to go anywhere exotic or too far away. I chalked it up to being old and this caused my friend a sense of dismay, although for me it is really no big deal at all. When I was younger I did suffer from acute wanderlust and the only way to deal with it was to travel. It made no difference if the trips were work related or a combination of work and play, I was compelled to travel and travel I did. I was lucky to be able to work and play abroad for many years so now I seem to be pretty blase about the whole thing. This is really not about a lack of interest in being patted down by over zealous customs guys and gals,but it may well be- at least in part- due to my realization that the 'carefree' travel I was lucky enough to do way back when, simply does not exisit anymore. I cannot imagine recapturing those euphoric feelings in today's changed world and I cannot imagine going too far away from home without(at the very least) the promise of those feelings. When I think of going anywhere in the world, I think of revisiting only those particular places that I always loved and feel the need to see again in general, and the people I miss who still live there in particular. I think that in my youth my destinations were selected based on location while this newer older me will only contemplate leaving home if it means a reunion with a person that I badly want to see again. This rare condition is also known as friendlust and while it is way less frenetic then its more popular polar opposite, it is definitely a condition that requires action and/or displacement.