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Why Fernweh?

Challis Hackley
May 29, 2017
2 min read

The name of my blog, Fernweh, is a little different but it was chosen with care. I lived in Germany for a few years when I was little, that's where my brother was born, and I went back to visit with my family when I was older. Although I don't remember much from when I was little and living there, I remember how it felt. I know what the culture and the people feel like. Germans can be a little rough and stoic but that's because they're hard workers and when they do loosen up, they know how to have a good time. They don't do anything halfway and they feel things so deeply. I want to live with that kind of passion in my own life. I am fond of Germany and the German people. My love for them, paired with my love of words, is what drove me to choose Fernweh as the name.

I graduated from Utah State University (USU) with my degree in English and Technical Communication. I have a fondness for words and especially words form other languages that don't quite translate into English. I even have a whole Pinterest Board dedicated to it. So, when it came time for me to choose an interesting, unique, eye-catching name for my travel blog, I couldn't resist.

Fernweh is a German word and I'm not sure if it's popular or well-known or if it's a little more obscure and less used like absquatulate is in English. Fernweh most closely translates to wanderlust, but it is so much more than that. It is an ache for distant places and a craving for travel. It is the desperate desire to travel around the world. It is being homesick for a place you have never been. It is a passionate, beautiful word.

I love the idea of that ache, that homesickness, for a place that you have only dreamed about going because I know what that feels like. I plan and I dream and I research all these beautiful places and wonderful people across the world and I fall in love with them. I want to see them and meet them and it does feel like an ache sometimes. Every few years I start to feel the itch, to move — somewhere far away —and see all that place has to offer. I have a severe case of the travel bug and I'm not looking for a cure.