There is a difference. You exit your plane. Call a cab. Check in to your hotel. Take out your list of Trip Advisor suggestions of top ten places to see. You turn the camera around and wait in line to take that selfie with (fill in attraction) posted a moment later on Facebook or Instagram. Being completely present, yet completely detached to the realism of it all. Becoming another hashtag in a scroll of faces you will never know. That are just like you.

Staying in one place shows you another side of a culture. I have been in Chiang Mai, Thailand for two months and in comparison to many others here that is nothing. I have met people that come here for extended periods of stay up to eight years.

I do not recognize the tired eyed me that stumbled along the broken sidewalks when I first arrived. Now I know the exact angle to bend my foot and fit into the rhythm of the journey.

I know how to navigate.

The more you accomplish, the more you see you can achieve what did not seem possible one year ago or maybe even yesterday. 

I do not need to speak the same language as the Thai people. Yes, of course that would be helpful! Feeling apart of the Thai community is more than words.

I walk the same route every morning passing the same people. The elderly man that sweeps the leaves in front of my apartment complex opens his eyes a little wider and gives me the sweetest wave hello.

I pass by the market and the woman who sold me the the most exquisite coconut says good morning every day.

I swing by the tuk tuk stand and every morning the same woman and I laugh when we meet eyes and neither of us know why. It is like we have an inside joke that neither of us knows why its funny.

I go to the same breakfast place and they go same? They know my order without me having to tell anyone now.

I come back to my apartment and open my curtains watching the mist swirl on top of the mountains. The rain drums down on the lush leaves outside and I am comforted not scared. The hum of the birds is a routine melody I have come to expect.

Finding familiarity is so much more complex and beautiful in what was once so foreign. I am adaptable. I can fit myself into any situation and make it work. This is not just for travel. Life throws curveballs. You need to learn how to twist your body to fit past the painful hurdles that will always come our way.

I can tell you what to see in Thailand. I can tell you cute little spots to go see jazz or get brunch. You would then be missing the point.

Staying in another country long enough to pick up the shifts in energy from day to day and understanding how to be part of a community that is not your original home. My mind and heart are bigger because of Chiang Mai, Thailand. Words do not bind us. Communication is so much more then what is said.

Travel is my greatest teacher. Chiang Mai showed me the world is so much bigger then what I know; yet it found a small place for just me in these small secret places.

I rather learn to stay balanced on this crooked path then stand on solid ground. 

When I get up again, know that I will stand taller then I had before.