Field Notes · Travel & Home

The new suitcase reached home before I did. That is when I understood the real point of travel.

Before I left Ankara, I ordered a replacement at the airport. The old one had finally given out — frayed zipper, worn wheels, a telescopic handle that had stopped working properly several trips ago. I had kept it going with duct tape longer than I should have. The Turkey trip was its last mission.

That case had history. I bought it in Paris three years earlier, during the Air Show, after Air France lost my luggage for 21 days. At the time I had to replace not just the case but an entire wardrobe. The bag I bought then went on to cross multiple continents, hundreds of flights, and more departure halls than I can accurately count. It earned its retirement.

Ordering the new one felt like closing a chapter. My family took delivery at home while I was still making my way back through Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Leipzig, and the final trains to Chemnitz. That is how travel really ends sometimes — not with a clean arrival, but with one last stack of transit before the door finally opens.

However far the travel goes, what matters most is having people worth returning home to.

When I heard the new case had already arrived, I noticed something shift. All the week’s compression — the race, the client meetings, the navigation errors, the late connections — suddenly had a very clear frame around it. You go out. You do the work. You come back. The coming back is the point.

I do not think travel needs to be justified by miles logged or races completed or meetings closed. Those things matter. But they are not the reason. The reason is that you have a life worth returning to, and the travel — done with some degree of structure and care — does not cost you that life. It funds it.

That distinction matters more to me the older I get. I am not trying to build a health routine that makes me into a different kind of person. I am trying to build one that lets me keep being the person I already want to be. Present. Functional. Capable of being home when home is where I am.

The suitcase is in the hall now. A good one. Ready for the next trip.