Always Somewhere Else

Katie Kuiper from Sydney probably isn’t anything like me, which might be why I ended up looking at her photos. She’s the kind of person who actually travels. I’m the kind of person who prefers to stay still. But travel bloggers are useful when you don’t want to move—you get all the postcards, none of the jet lag, all piped into your room while you’re lying there thinking about what you might order.

The contrasts are obvious and kind of funny. She loves fitness and clean eating and constant motion. I love pizza and staying in one place. We’d have absolutely nothing to say to each other, but I can watch her go places while I stay here, and that arrangement works fine. There’s something beautiful about the distance between us.

There was a shoot somewhere in an Australian garden, some photographer, some clothes. She looked like someone already planning the next flight, the next city. That’s what people like her do—they collect destinations. Barcelona, Paris, Berlin. Not to stay in them, just to photograph and leave. Every place is somewhere to be briefly, then abandon.

I’ll probably never meet Katie Kuiper, but that seems fine. She’s out there making everywhere she goes a little better just by showing up, and I’m here, and that’s enough for both of us.