Committing to traveling with your partner long term means you’ll more than likely spend 24 hours hours a day with them more days than not. With the immense amount of time being spent together, comes the opportunity to get to know each other on an even deeper level than you did while you lived at home. You’ll get to know each other’s odd pet peeves, tendencies with money, and how you each cope with stressful situations. The less eventful days of travel, however, can leave the two of you with either lots of engaging conversations or lots of empty silence. If you think you’ve run out of every topic you can possibly discuss together, here are some ideas of things to talk about when you’ve run out of things to talk about.
1. A memory you’ve had together
It’s always a good idea to reflect on how far the two of you have come and happy times you’ve shared in the past. This is especially effective at generating new conversation after being briefly annoyed at one another. Having moments of aggravation with each other will happen – its inevitable, so the best weapon in your arsenal of reminders why you are freely choosing to travel and spend your life with this person, is your collection of happy memories. Good memories bring smiles, and smiles mean its the end of your minor spiff. You’ll be on good terms again and continue traveling in good spirits together.
2. A goal for yourself
Perhaps traveling has made you realize you have a passion or desire to do something that you didn’t realize previously. Or maybe deep down inside you’ve always thought about something you wanted to accomplish, but never did. If you haven’t already shared this goal with your partner, an otherwise silent bus ride, hike, or long layover might be the perfect time to tell them. It will get the two of you talking about each other’s goals and have the chance to encourage each other and figure out what it will take to make the goal into a reality. Maybe you can even talk about how each of you will help one another accomplish each other’s goals. You are a team, so when you help each other accomplish goals, the payoff will be sweet for both of you.
3. A childhood memory
Assuming you haven’t known your partner throughout your whole adolescent life, you probably have plenty of random memories that can spark into fun conversations. They don’t have to be life-altering occurrences of your past, just a memory or story you can think of that your partner hasn’t already heard. Chances are, this will spark a memory in your partner also and the two of you can relate or compare these flashbacks and get to know even more about each other than you already do, based on simple memories of your childhood.
4. A hope or wish for the future
Don’t limit yourself to topics of conversation that just affect you or your relationship. This conversation starter can be bigger than that. It can include something you hope for your family, your country, or even the world. Do you hope your cousin gets into medical school? Do you hope the next election will warrant different results? Do you wish someday we can accomplish world peace, cure cancer, and alleviate world hunger? Conversations like these will broaden your horizons about what is really important to each other in the grand scheme of life.
5. Current events
Since these are always, for lack of a better word – current – there is always something new to discuss. If you keep up with the world via online newspapers or social media then you know there is a wealth of information crossing our brains on the daily, constantly changing. If you read something interesting or saw a video about a place you haven’t heard of, tell your partner about it. If you really are a suitable pair, you probably find the same things interesting. And since you’re traveling, it’s a good idea to keep up with what is happening at home and around the world in your future travel destinations.
Still need help with coming up with ideas of things to talk about while traveling with your partner? Let us know in the comments!
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