The Itch

Recently I’ve been thinking about this Anthony Bourdain quote:


“If you’re twenty-two, physically fit, hungry to learn and be better, I urge you to travel – as far and as widely as possible. Sleep on floors if you have to. Find out how other people live and eat and cook. Learn from them – wherever you go.”

I happen to be a twenty-two year old that thinks he's physically fit and is hungry to learn, weirdly enough. I remember during undergrad feeling this sense of entrapment in school – and just about every spring I would get the itch.


The itch is the phenomenon that has overtaken many of us at one point or another. You think “Wow, I could just buy a plane ticket and move away. I could drop everything and escape.” the realization triggers the itch – a spreading, worsening desire to leave commitments and travel. Some give into the itch and move, but I never had the guts to fully commit (plus I wanted to go to med school, lest we forget). 


I’ve graduated now though, and with what seems to be a cosmic alignment, I am now the audience that Bourdain was talking about. With spring around the corner, I can feel the itch creeping up again, but this time I am going to scratch it. I don’t need to escape, but I fully intend to travel to my fullest ability. While I am a bit restricted by work, I am making every effort to travel as much as possible, for as long as possible, every opportunity I get. 


My ideal itineraries usually only include meals, and the rest is a little more go-by-the-flow. As I have written about earlier, I do truly feel that the best connections happen over a meal. I’ve also recently discovered the cool connections that you can make while you’re outdoors, especially hiking! When I was in Greece, I met an Australian on a long hike who had quit his job to be a party tour guide on the islands. We stuck together and chatted the whole way, and at the end got to celebrate the effort over a beer. 


These are the kinds of experiences that I have been craving, and looking back over the quote, I know that Bourdain was right. These times are the ones that I've been hanging onto, and the kinds of experiences that will push me through the rigor of med school. I am hoping that by filling my cup early ––  really scratching that itch, I will have these memories to look back to and perhaps feel less like I am giving up “prime” years. My future in the hospital will undoubtedly be quite literally sterile, so maybe getting dirt under my fingernails now will be a nice contrast to my eventual scrubbed-in life.


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