They say the the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, but what about 28,000 miles? In 2015, Tom Turcich walked out of his home in New Jersey and never looked back. He began a journey that would take him across most of the world's continents using just his two feet.
He would become the 10th person to walk around the world and the first to do it with a dog. In an essay on The Daily Mail, Turcich confronts the dangers he faced, the loneliness he experienced, and the heart breaking reason he decided to walk 28,000 miles.
He wrote, "What started as my response to losing two friends in their teens became something far richer: an intimate encounter with humanity at walking pace. After seven years of walking, I can say with certainty that the world is far less dangerous and far more welcoming than we're led to believe."
However, they weren't without their risks. He wrote, "Yes, there are risks, and yes, there are places where you need to watch your step. I was attacked with a primitive home-made knife in Panama City and held up at gunpoint in Turkey."
He added, "The only time I genuinely feared for my safety was in Panama City — when a man with bloodshot eyes and a face drawn like a rat held a shiv to my neck. But even then, local shopkeepers rushed to my aid and chased the man away."
Miles TO Go
But what Tom struggled with the most was his own loneliness. Journeying for 28,000 miles across several countries, he was often a stranger in a strange land. He wrote, "In South America, I learned what true isolation means. Crossing the Peruvian coast then the Atacama Desert (the world's driest) I frequently went days without seeing another soul. Yet even here, the remarkable generosity of humanity bloomed."
In Europe, he found himself feeling alone and separate from people as well. It's a recurring issue for the traveler. He wrote, "I felt a separation from the people that was less common in the developing countries I had already walked. People were friendly but seemingly less inclined to invite strangers into their homes."
The pandemic brought a new perspective to the traveler. Tom realized that he was tired of always being a stranger and craved to go home and to settle down. He wanted deep human connection. He wrote, "After years of living on the move, existing always as the perpetual stranger, I suddenly recognized my profound longing for deep human connection (friends, a romantic partner, and family close by). That recognition made the remainder of my walking more challenging but it also excited me for the possibility of life after my seven-year walk."
Tom eventually chose to adopt a dog during his travels to help with this loneliness. Eventually, the two made their way back to Tom's home state of New Jersey after seven years.
He wrote, "As I crossed the Ben Franklin Bridge back into New Jersey, accompanied by friends and family for the final miles, I noticed I was no longer walking to escape or to prove something. I was walking home, carrying with me the certainty that while the world is vast and complex, it is also remarkably small and interconnected. We're all, in our own way, walking the same path."
