Who We’ll Be After This
Even in a Changed World, Travel Will Be Worth the Risk
The idea of getting on a plane terrifies me. But I know I’ll do it again anyway.
While I’ve been having a terrible, terrible case of wanderlust since the spring, I’m terrified at the thought of getting on a flight again. Think about it. Think of the compact space we’re in. Think of the stuffy air and the collision course of energies from other passengers, whether it’s peace, anxiety, anger, or impatience. Think of our proximity to one another.
In low moments during the pandemic, I have asked myself: Will we ever be able to travel freely again? There would have been no way that I could’ve pulled off writing my second book, Wandering in Strange Lands, if I could not travel. To tell the story of my family’s route through the Great Migration, I had to be able to take in the mugginess of the low-country heat, the smell of the rivers in Louisiana, and the miles and miles of acreage in Oklahoma. I had to be in the soil in order to understand the expansiveness of my family history and American history at large.
Travel is a crucial part of my life. Last October, I was teaching literature and creative writing at Leipzig University in Germany and spent every weekend visiting places like…
