The Risks and Excitement of Travel

In the poem, the speaker reflects back on how she made backpacking her lifestyle. Backpacking is a kind of travel in which one carries all of one’s belongings in a backpack. The way that the speaker describes her first time backpacking is almost animalistic: she “saddled” her rucksack, feeling its weight on her back (1-2). She speaks about this act with reverence. In other words, the speaker loves an activity that not many people have the strength or desire to do. And not only does the speaker love traveling and backpacking in general, but she takes it to the extreme.

Living on the edge by taking risks and constantly traveling around with limited financial means is how the speaker moves through the world. The speaker’s travel decisions differ from usual vacationing in multiple ways. Firstly, she chooses to go...