Zugunruhe!

Zugunruhe, as German scientists recently revealed, is the need to migrate. It is the urge, most often studied in birds, to take wing or hop in the car or run or catch a plane and GO. And even those birds that don't migrate experience nocturnal restlessness. Sound familiar? We all feel that spring fever or pull in the fall toward a homecoming. Even those of us that have to work and cannot travel get restless during those first nice days of spring and last glorious days of autumn. We want to go, to depart, to discover new places and things.

The pull to go is a constant struggle for me. I almost always have the urge to do, to go, to get away. I'm constantly daydreaming about traveling to distant countries or driving down dusty country roads. I'd love to hop in the car and drive until I reach the mountains. And, when I can't go, I get restless. I listen to songs about driving and leaving while I fidget endlessly in the confines of my apartment.

I love the travel time. I love airports and airplanes and driving for hours alone with my thoughts. I love walking for miles on empty paths and chasing the breeze through open fields. I even love truck stops and rest areas and layovers because it means I'm in transit.

Perhaps that is why graduations occur in the spring and new school years start in the fall. No matter where you are in the world, the school year lasts from fall to spring, allowing students to migrate away to school in the fall and back in the spring. It's our natural pattern. I almost dread facing a year-round job because I will be unable to go when I want. I'll be forced to remain restlessly trapped in one place throughout the year, unable to obey the zugunruhe. I think I must have descended from nomads, from generations of people who traveled in order to survive. I feel that, to survive, I too must go, move on, discover.

I guess it's like James Thurber once said, "All humans should try to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why." I just keep going everywhere to try to find the answer.