Armchair Traveling (Collecting Souvenir Keychains From Places You've Never Visited)

Some of us will never get the opportunity to travel the world. We either won't have the financial resources to do so, or our lives will be so busy that setting aside the time needed to travel won't be an option. Even those people who have the money and the free time needed to tour the globe will probably have to limit themselves, deciding where they'd most like to go in their lifetimes. If everyone lived to be a hundred years old, each person still probably wouldn't get to see all of the wonders that our world has to offer. Our planet is just too big.

Personally, I have always felt uncomfortable when I've had to travel. Some people feel a thrill of discovery from being in a new, unfamiliar environment. But being somewhere I'm not familiar with has a tendency to make me anxious and uncomfortable. I don't travel alone, and I wouldn't consider going to a country where I didn't speak the language unless I was with someone else I knew who did speak it.

Luckily, I can still experience a little of the pleasures of travel without leaving the comfort of my own home, thanks to my keychain collection. By collecting souvenir keychains that family members, friends, and even strangers selling at flea markets have brought back from their travels, I can vicariously share some of their experiences. I can look at a keychain from Venice or Stonehenge and try to imagine what it must've been like to be there.

One time I found a souvenir keychain from Iceland at a thrift store.

I don't know much about Iceland. I was never good at geography. But the fact that I'd never seen a keychain from there before made it seem exotic. I'd seen a number of keychains from France and Italy secondhand over the years, but never one from Iceland.

Of course, I do understand that there's a big difference between looking at a keychain from someplace, and actually seeing the sights in person. But in my mind, having a keychain from somewhere is sort of like looking at a picture printed on a souvenir postcard. It's not the same as being there, but you do get a general impression of the place.

Signed, Treesa