A traveler of 23 years.
The person who knows best that even if it is a step without a destination, the process is already enough.
Author Kim Nam-hee has made a living by traveling for over 20 years.
I have continued to travel, write about the places I have visited, and share stories with others.
But paradoxically, the more I travel, the more I feel like the era of travel is over.
Still, he can't give up traveling.
It is because I believe that if it weren't for traveling, I would be a much narrower and less fortunate person than I am now.
The author says:
“Travel is ultimately an act of jumping into an unfamiliar world and breaking down one’s own narrow world.”
After reading the book, we naturally think of a moment when we will face ourselves on an unfamiliar road.
So, as he said, I have no choice but to leave for now.

The more I travel, the more the common sense and truths I knew crumble.
The more I walk, the more questions arise and I begin to doubt what I have learned.
The more time I spend on the streets, the more I realize how deeply connected I am to others, to the earth.
When I return home from a trip, I love and cherish everything around me a little more.
Traveling has always made me want to be a better me.
I really want to be a better person, a being that does less harm to the Earth and to others.
That longing leads me to travel.

--- p.10 From the "Prologue"

In the nomads' tents, I had to sleep with strangers.
Lying down in a sleeping bag on a mat once a year, mingling with strangers, I was reminded of how much I carry with me.
The sheep and horses they embraced, the desire for a wandering life that I could not let go of.
Eventually, we each fell into a dreamless sleep, thinking that we were passing through life holding on to something we desperately needed.

--- p.26 From “Continuing Life as It Was Yesterday”

Traveling is ultimately a process of writing your own world history textbook.
Because history can often be a one-sided story written from the perspective of the victors.
Through travel, we meet people we wouldn't normally encounter (the defeated, the minorities, the marginalized) and hear their voices and their lives.
It is a time to meet them not as anonymous beings in history books, but as concrete human beings with names, voices, and body temperatures.
As such experiences accumulate, your own world history is rewritten.
The knowledge the world has instilled in me is breaking apart.
In that place, the world interpreted through my eyes enters.
That is why 'travel is not simply a movement from place to place, but begins with breaking free from the castle of thoughts that one has built up.'
--- p.58 From “The End of the Journey Was Always the Same”

When I was younger, I wanted to do my best to distance myself from people.
Because the space between them felt so tight that sometimes I felt like I was suffocating.
Back then, I thought I could live on my own.
I didn't have the courage to go very far away and live, so I wandered outside to catch my breath.
The longer I spent wandering like that, the more my heart's distance from others became.
I was drawn to those who did not give up on life, even though they each carried their own sorrows and wounds.
I felt compassion for all living beings who struggled to live and ultimately survived.
I have come to realize that just as the life of wandering outside is so desperately needed for me, the life of holding on inside is also so desperately needed for some people.
That no matter which path you choose, all of life requires courage.
Only after the big dream disappeared did I begin to look at life, embracing and enduring the small and trivial things.
It was only later that I realized that the long hardships and sorrows of life, as well as the fleeting joys and delights, are equally present everywhere.

--- p.102 From "I Went to That Island"

“Europe is responsible for what we did in the past.
“We have to accept refugees.”
I was reminded of what a writer once said: to live as a European means to live as someone indebted to another world.
Their attitude was probably developed through travel.
After all, traveling is an act of jumping into an unfamiliar world, breaking down one's own narrow world, and also a process of accepting others as one's neighbors.
As I accumulate experiences in foreign countries where I am accepted as a foreigner, I also learn to naturally accept strangers.

--- p.198 From “Everyone’s Life Was Hot”

“You drove around for over four hours to get to a place that could have been reached in ten minutes?”
They say this, but everyone knows it.
Walking on your own two legs is an act of engraving the scenery on your body.
The scenery read that way is deeply engraved in the soul and is not easily forgotten.

--- p.256 From "How Long Can I Travel?"

The silence of the night, sitting around a wood fire and drinking tea.
A cluster of stars and the Milky Way in the night sky.
Strong men who were willing to help us as we struggled with the tent that wouldn't open.
Zebras and wildebeests, lions and giraffes, herds of elephants and rhinoceroses, and hippos.
My heart would beat faster whenever I encountered a life form other than human.
Looking back, every moment was sparkling.
We never felt bored for a single moment.
Those were days that felt like I was truly alive, and it was like the first trip I had ever taken since I was born.
Hardships in travel can be challenging, but most of our most memorable travel memories are those that stem from hardships.
We have memories to talk about for the rest of our lives.

--- p.320 From "It was like my first trip, my first since I was born"