An Aspiring Travel Writer

It is in the mountains of French-speaking Switzerland where I would like to spend the rest of my days. The air is crisp and clean. The water is cold and fresh and the people are very welcoming. Though I only understand bits and pieces, the language welcomes me. I feel at home here, even though the landscape, the people, and the language are truly foreign to me, though I do not feel like a foreigner. The elegance of French seems like a sigh of relief or a breath of fresh air after living around Italian, which I understand so little. The Italian

bus driver smirks at me as I tell him I’m from dinner and the waitress says “'c'est chaud,” cautioning me as I eat.

It is here that I begin my journey—St. Luc, the French-speaking Swiss mountain town in the canton of Valais. Not ready to return to the fast pace of city life, I wish I could stay longer. The noise of the group increases, young girls smoke cigarettes, and I sit here thinking. I find this trip to be a pilgrimage of sorts. As a student and resident of Switzerland, an avid skier, and a lover of the French language, I look forward to the food, the people, the scenery, and the adventures ahead of me.

My future seems hazy and I hope to use this time I have to clear my head. This trip makes me think of the word “kairos,”—meaning ‘time away from time.’ A chance to escape and do a bit of searching for what is important to me. Hopefully this will help me better understand which path I must take and what kind of man I want to become. Though I currently have a good grasp on who I am and who I want to continue to become, I believe there is more to discover. For one of the first times in my life, I am beginning to feel content and settled.

As travel progressed and I learned more and more about the Swiss-French travel writer, Nicholas Bouvier. I picked up one of his books in Lausanne, and though it was in French, I began stumbling through it. Nicholas was a photographer, a traveler, a writer, and in my opinion, a bit of a philosopher. His travels allowed him to be surrounded by new cultures all the time. He approached these cultures with and open mind, often trying to meet and cultivate friendships with the locals. From Afghanistan to Japan, his travels to the East allowed him to maintain a relatively nomadic lifestyle and a mindset that might seem unattainable if sedentary.

Much of his writing reflects a childhood filled with literature. He recounts his feelings and emotions at a given point in time. Like most travelers, he went to the places he visited with pre-established notions of what the people, the culture, and the scenery would be like. Often he would address such notions and be thankful for the moments he was given in certain locations. Nicholas has allowed me to travel with this open-mind, or rather to strive for this mindset. In my opinion, nobody will every have a truly unbiased view of the world, it is a matter of learning to recognize your prejudices so that you can address the world with a knowledge of where your opinion is coming from.