The World Is Full of Wonder...
Do you remember being a child and asking why about absolutely everything?
Why is the sky blue? Why do people speak different languages? Why does something work the way it does? Why can't we go there? Why can't we do that?
I remember an AP English teacher telling my class that one of the defining characteristics of students like us was that we asked why. We wanted to understand things, question what we were told, and look a little deeper than what was right in front of us.
Years later, when I became a mother, I thought about that conversation again. If you've ever spent time with a toddler, you know that asking why isn't something we have to teach them. It comes naturally. They want to know what everything is, where it came from, what happens if they touch it, and what happens if they do it again.
And not every child asks those questions out loud. Some are perfectly content to sit for hours building something, taking it apart, and putting it back together differently. They're experimenting, observing, and figuring things out in their own way.
I think some people carry that same sense of wonder with them throughout their lives. They never quite lose the desire to know what's out there, how things work, or what they might discover next.
There's a line from J.R.R. Tolkien that I've always thought captures something about that spirit: “Not all those who wander are lost.”
And I think that's true in more ways than one.
Those are the people I think of as Wanderers.
A Passport Isn't Required
When most people hear the word Wanderer, I imagine they picture someone with a suitcase, a passport, and a list of places they're determined to visit.
And they'd be right.
There are absolutely Wanderers who dream of visiting every country in the world, setting foot on all seven continents, and dipping their toes into every ocean. Their passports are filled with stamps, their homes are filled with souvenirs, and they're already thinking about the next destination before they've finished unpacking from the last one.
I also know people who have a particular passion that shapes where they travel. Take football, for example. I know a fellow football fanatic whose goal is to visit every NFL stadium. And now that NFL games are being played internationally, that love of football has become a reason to explore places well beyond the United States.
I love that idea because the destination doesn't always have to be the starting point. Sometimes it's the thing you love that takes you somewhere new.
But that's only one way to wander.
Travel is a privilege, and not everyone has the money, time, health, or circumstances that make it possible. Some people are uncomfortable flying. Others have responsibilities that keep them close to home. And plenty of people simply have no desire to pack a suitcase and spend hours getting somewhere else.
None of that means they lack a wandering spirit.
I know people who explore their own cities by following street art. They'll spend an afternoon walking through neighborhoods, looking for murals, discovering artists, and noticing how different communities express themselves.
Think about a city like Philadelphia, New York, or Los Angeles. You could spend years exploring its neighborhoods and still find something you hadn't noticed before. A little shop tucked away on a side street, a mural with a story behind it, a restaurant serving food from a culture you've never experienced, or a building that makes you wonder what stood there a hundred years ago.
You don't have to travel thousands of miles to encounter something unfamiliar. Sometimes you just have to take a different route home.
The World Is Their Classroom
I think Wanderers have a particular relationship with learning, although I don't necessarily mean learning in the traditional sense.
They're not always the people who want to spend years in school collecting degrees or certifications. Some might, of course, but I think many are perfectly happy learning without needing to prove they've learned anything.
Books can take them to countries they'll never visit and introduce them to people who lived hundreds of years before they were born. Movies can immerse them in unfamiliar cultures, imagined futures, and moments in history they would otherwise never experience.
They might spend an afternoon at the library reading about ancient civilizations, then go home and watch a documentary about the deepest parts of the ocean. A few days later, they're fascinated by space exploration and wondering what it must feel like to look back at Earth from somewhere most of us will never go.
And the wonderful thing is that they don't necessarily need to do anything with what they've learned.
They don't have to become experts, write a paper, start a business, or turn their interest into a hobby that produces something tangible. They might simply want to know.
I've always found that fascinating because we live in a world that often encourages us to make something useful out of every interest. But sometimes the pleasure is in discovering something you didn't know yesterday, with no expectation that it needs to become anything more.
Sometimes I Follow My Appetite
I can certainly recognize the Wanderer in myself, particularly when it comes to food.
Whenever I travel, I try to find something food-related to experience beyond simply going out to eat. I've visited a potato chip factory, toured a chocolate factory, wandered through a fish market, and learned about traditional salt harvesting at a farm in Hawaii.
Those experiences probably don't sound equally exciting to everyone, but I love them.
When I visited a salt farm in Hawaii, I learned about traditional salt harvesting and the history behind it. I was fascinated by the process and the connection between something as ordinary as salt and the people who have produced it for generations.
I took pictures, made a video, and shared some of what I'd learned. And while other people were perfectly happy to hear about it, I don't think anyone was quite as interested as I was.
Which was fine with me.
I hadn't gone because I thought it would make a great story or because I needed everyone else to appreciate it. I went because I wanted to know.
If you're curious about that particular adventure, I actually wrote more about it in Discover the Magic of Kona Salt.
That's something I think is important about Wanderers. Their discoveries don't always need an audience.
Sometimes they'll come home from a trip with photographs, recipes, souvenirs, and stories they can't wait to share. Other times, they'll have an experience that means something entirely to them, and they'll be just as happy keeping it that way.
I think both are equally valid.
There's More Than One Way to See the World
I've thought about people who may never physically travel very far but still have an enormous interest in places beyond their own surroundings.
Imagine someone whose loved ones send postcards from their travels. Over the years, those postcards become a collection of cities, landscapes, buildings, and little glimpses of everyday life in places the recipient has never visited.
Maybe they arrange them in scrapbooks, pin them to a wall, or spend time reading about the places pictured on them.
They're Wanderers, too.
They're experiencing the world through the stories and discoveries of others, and their imagination is doing some of the traveling for them.
The same is true of someone who loves historical fiction because it allows them to step into another time, or someone who watches international films because they enjoy seeing how people live and tell stories in different parts of the world.
And then there are the people fascinated by places we can barely reach at all.
The depths of the ocean, distant planets, the possibility of life beyond Earth, or civilizations whose stories we're still uncovering. Most of us will never personally visit those places, and some are beyond our reach entirely, but that doesn't stop us from wondering about them.
Their sense of wonder isn't limited by where their feet can take them.
What Happens When a Wanderer Comes Home?
Sometimes a Wanderer's discoveries become part of the way they connect with other people.
They might take a cooking class while traveling, learn to make pasta from someone who has been making it for decades, and come home excited to prepare that same dish for family and friends.
They might discover an artist whose work they love and introduce everyone they know to it. Or they might visit a place that changes how they think about something they've taken for granted.
That's where I see some overlap between the different Gatherers.
A Wanderer might discover something wonderful, and the Curious Connector in them wants to bring other people into that discovery. Or an Experience Curator might create an outing that gives the Wanderer in someone else the freedom to explore without worrying about the details.
I experienced that on a trip to Asia, where someone else took care of the planning and I got to enjoy discovering places, foods, and experiences that were completely new to me.
But I don't think every discovery has to be shared to be meaningful.
Some things we learn simply become part of who we are. They change how we see the world, even if we never tell another person about them.
And I think that's just as valuable.
Never Losing That Sense of Wonder
The more I think about Wanderers, the more I come back to those childhood questions.
Why does that happen? Where did this come from? What's over there? What would it be like to experience that?
Somewhere along the way, many of us become so busy with the responsibilities of everyday life that we stop asking quite so many questions. We get comfortable with what we know, the places we go, and the routines we've created.
But I think the Wanderer holds on to that part of themselves that still wants to discover what else is out there.
They may have traveled to dozens of countries, or they may have spent most of their lives in the same neighborhood. They may collect passport stamps, photographs, recipes, postcards, books, or nothing at all beyond their memories.
What matters is that the world continues to fascinate them.
They can look at something familiar and wonder about its history. They can encounter something unfamiliar and want to understand it. They can read about a place they'll never visit and still feel connected to it through the experience of learning.
And they don't necessarily need a reason beyond wanting to know.
I think that's a lovely way to move through life, because it means there's always the possibility of discovering something new, even on an ordinary Tuesday when you haven't gone any farther than your local library.
So, are you someone who can't help wondering what's around the next corner, on the next page, or beyond the places you've already seen? Or do you know someone whose fascination with the world seems to have no end?
Maybe there's a little Wanderer in you, too.