It was the third day in a row that I had traveled to a new city and the second week I had been in Scotland. I had been walking roughly 7-10 miles every day. I could do it, I said to myself. I just needed to get to Kelvingrove Museum from the railway station. No problem, I’ll just walk. I passed by retail stores with names I recognized and restaurants I could find back home. I passed by statues of famous Scotsman. Then I found myself on a street that sloped up. This can’t be that bad, I thought. I just have to get to the top of the hill, then I’ll be halfway there. The trip to Kelvingrove ended up being a few miles further away than I had thought. When I got there, I had climbed an enormous hill and walked along a deserted road for most of it. All I wanted to do was sit down, but I was at a museum. So I kept walking.
When I finally went back to the hostel that evening, I was fatigued and freezing. I felt like none of my blood was reaching my outer extremities. I was hungry too. Starbucks was close, but it didn’t have any real food. If I wanted real food, I was going to have to walk at least a mile to find it. I did find it that day, after a 2 mile round trip hike. I was mentally exhausted from having to figure out my bearings and physically exhausted from the day. But wait, I still had to do work for four hours. Ok, I’ll just get my laptop. It’ll be fine.
I plugged everything in, got myself some water and went to send an email. The email was sending so slowly I checked the wifi; it said I had four bars. It took about 12 minutes to send a 1MB file. I kept going anyway. The speed of the wifi cut the amount of work I was able to do in half. I couldn’t communicate with my coworkers or clients without having to sit through an excruciatingly long progress bar. Whatever, I’ll make it for it tomorrow when I get faster wifi somewhere else. My brain felt like jelly. It felt like I needed to exert extraordinary amounts of effort to think. I put my head back for a moment and almost immediately fell asleep.
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I foresaw that I was going to be tired, hungry and sleepy. I knew that I would be coming home a little drained and pale-faced. I had an inkling that I might get sick. What I didn’t expect was that I would be sick for three weeks, and that I would keep getting sick for the next three months. I kept traveling, and my immune system dipped again and again.
Had I slept a little more, eaten a little better, chosen to take the bus instead of walk to destinations that required more walking/climbing, I could have mitigated my illnesses. I didn’t have to deplete everything I had, but I did. I didn’t listen to my body. Whenever there was something new to see, I would ignore all of my basic needs and run to explore my new destination instead. I forgot about eating things with nutrients and recovering from long days. I forgot that those things were important.
I went to the doctor’s for an annual check-up in the middle of my traveling. He told me my white blood cell count was low, and that I should rest up for a while. Instead, I flew to the Middle East and continued my journey. I knew that I was about to get sick again, and I did.
Of all the things I’ve learned from traveling, I’ve learned that nothing is more important than taking care of yourself. You can’t do anything without your health. Don’t lose it.
The Design Ocean 