Bob Seger's Against the Wind lyrics have pretty much been my personal athem right from when I first heard this song back in 1980. I remember I had just returned from a few months of being on the run in Thunder Bay, Ontario for that summer. Yes, that is right I ran away from home, but only because I wanted my freedom and yes, I know, it the wrong way to go about it but we all make mistakes in our lives and I don't really think I need to be lectured about this mistake now some 29 years later.

I remember I didn't want to come back home from Thunder Bay. I wanted to travel all over the world. I wanted to experience all that the world had to offer. However, my parents convinced me to come back home. I remember I was standing in their living room in Whitby, Ontario looking out the living room window and I heard Against the Wind for the very first time. I fell in love with that song and still to this day, that song will bring a tear to my eyes.

The chorus of the song talks about being young and strong and running against the wind. I had just come home from running against the wind. I think for me the wind was my parents who wanted to protect me from the rest of the world and who wanted to shelter me forever. I, obviously, was the word against. I was against what my parents wanted for me. I was against being protected and being sheltered. I wanted to experience life. I wanted to travel.

Okay, so that was in my teens. Why does this song still mean so much to me? I still have the need and wanting to travel. These days, the wind in my life, is my life and the against again is me. Give me two seconds and a plane ticket and I'd be traveling and experiencing what life has to offer. I still haven't gotten the travel bug out of me yet. I'm still willing to travel the world.

So, where did this travel bug come from? Well, believe it or not, it was my dad that gave that to me.Yes, the same dad that wanted to protect me and shelter me gave me the very bug that would want me to travel the world over.

When I was a kid, my parents moved at least once a year. Whether it was across town or a new town, we moved a lot. Because of all those moves, I have never felt settled. I remember me and my dad sitting at the kitchen table with my dad's big map and we'd sit and talk and look at the different places we wanted to go to. At one time we were wanting to go to La Pas, Manitoba and other times we wanted to travel to Texas. I used to love those days. I used to dream at night of where we would go. I never did go to La Pas, Manitoba or Texas but I have been all up and down the eastern seaboard of the United States several times as a child and then more recently, I have traveled from Ontario, Canada to British Columbia, Canada three times now.

I love to travel. I still want to travel and I don't think my traveling days are over yet. Who knows where I'll travel to or where I'll go but I will never be settled until I've seen the world over.