Diana's View: Travel Journals (7/27/2001)

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This is The Savvy Traveler and I'm Diana Nyad. Do you keep a journal? I do. I started when I was about 18. Now I have a couple of dozen books, filled with the scribblings of my inner self. Every night before I go to sleep, I take a few minutes to jot down the summary of what my heart and brain went through that day. I'm sure I'm like you, living a hectic life, going for the gusto all day, every day. I find if I don't take a moment to crystallize what the heck I'm doing with my life, I blink and years go by without my feeling that I'm directing my time the way I want to. The few periods when I've gotten a little lazy and foregone the journal writing have felt like months when I've lost focus. My biggest goal in life is to be as awake and alert as I possibly can be, every minute of every day, and keeping a daily journal is the tool that helps me come closest to living that goal.

Travel opens your eyes in that same way. I'll bet you've had the experience, while on vacation, of settling into your bed at the end of an adventurous day and letting your feelings wander on a blank page. No one may ever read your words, but somehow the page honors your insights. Well, this hour, we'll listen in to two audio travel journals... one from half way around the world, another from right here on American soil. But both are seemingly journeys in honest, vulnerable phrases of self-perception. It's time to GET REAL, on The Savvy Traveler.