Sand in your shoes

When I am asked the question of what is most rewarding in traveling, my mind generally draws a blank. How do you describe spearing fish in the sea of Cortez, trudging through the muskeg of Alaska, standing in a sea of wheat or sunflowers, watching the sun rise over the black sea, waking up to a foreign tongue every day?
After a few days of pondering, here is my answer: the sand in your shoes. The true joy of travel is not the foreign languages you learn, the increased earning potential by building your skills, or the touristy adventures given by every city. I find that the treasure of travel is introspection, self observation, and contemplation.
Now this may sound rabidly boring to many of you, but let me unravel this a little quicker to keep your attention: souvenirs fade like scars, but the memory lasts. Travel changes a person not with trinketry or glamour, but withal slow persistent scrubbing of the soul, until all that is left is the raw, unashamed yet ever-adapting center. A nucleus that stands as a testiment to divinity and eternal progression.
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Let your travels unravel YOU