I bought this thing called a "scratch map" which shows the world covered in gold.
You take a coin and scratch off the gold over the countries you've visited. Each one is a different color.
When I stood back to admire the places I'd been I realized that I have seen nothing of the world.
I scratched off the whole of Canada although I've only ever visited Ontario. For this reason, I left Alaska and Hawaii untouched.
The same thing happened with China. I've only wandered around the northeast and yet I scratched off the whole surface. I felt like a bit of a fraud for that.
The first country I ever visited outside my own was the Bahamas. This required the tiniest scrapes to reveal their colors.
France, England and Italy combined make a decent showing but Chile is barely noticeable and New Zealand is so small!
Mexico and the continental U.S. were the only two countries I felt honest about uncovering in their entirety (even though most of middle America is unknown to me).
It is amazing how we give each other credit for being knowledgeable about the world and call ourselves well traveled when most of us have only set foot in a few cities for brief stays.
There is so much more to be seen and I hope I can get to it before my mortal limits have been reached.
You take a coin and scratch off the gold over the countries you've visited. Each one is a different color.
When I stood back to admire the places I'd been I realized that I have seen nothing of the world.
I scratched off the whole of Canada although I've only ever visited Ontario. For this reason, I left Alaska and Hawaii untouched.
The same thing happened with China. I've only wandered around the northeast and yet I scratched off the whole surface. I felt like a bit of a fraud for that.
The first country I ever visited outside my own was the Bahamas. This required the tiniest scrapes to reveal their colors.
France, England and Italy combined make a decent showing but Chile is barely noticeable and New Zealand is so small!
Mexico and the continental U.S. were the only two countries I felt honest about uncovering in their entirety (even though most of middle America is unknown to me).
It is amazing how we give each other credit for being knowledgeable about the world and call ourselves well traveled when most of us have only set foot in a few cities for brief stays.
There is so much more to be seen and I hope I can get to it before my mortal limits have been reached.
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