All the Cities We Never Visited

Everyone close to me knows about my fears.
Most think it’s silly, but to me it feels real:
One of them is the fear of not seeing all the incredible places and landmarks in the world.
How could I leave this earth without experiencing the places where life began,
where history unfolded,
where magnificence whether myth or real still waits to be seen?

Geography and history were my favorite subjects growing up.
I never stopped at what was taught in class;
I read more, researched more,
dreamed of feeling what the great explorers once felt.
This was what first pushed me toward science.

I wanted to go beyond Earth,
to see outer space and uncover its secrets.
I wanted to be an anthropologist,
studying different people and their societies.
I wanted to be an archaeologist too—
perhaps that’s why I’m still obsessed with museums.

When I moved to a new country,
I thought I might become a travel blogger.
But reality weighed me down—money, visas, jobs,
all the practical constraints that keep dreams on hold.
So here I am, a financial crime analyst in four office walls,
still daydreaming of all the cities I’ve never visited.

I want to walk the paths where the first man walked.
I want to see the Garden of Eden.
I want to stand at the tomb of Jesus.
I want to witness the battlefields of the Crusades.
I want to walk through plantations where slaves once labored.
Take me to the Seven Wonders:
ancient, modern, natural, industrial, even cosmic.

I want to visit every city in every country,
because each one carries its own beauty,
its own stories,
its own life.
It saddens me that whenever I travel,
I never have time to see them all.
My only real exercise is on vacation,
because I never stop moving, chasing beauty with every step.

So here’s to all the cities I’ve never visited
but someday, surely,
I will.