Social Capital

This isn't a term I'd heard before but read it in a book yesterday by Mari Rhydwen called Slow Travel, excerpt below:

"Social capital was not a term I knew before setting sail but it was one I would need when I came back. It describes precisely the allure of slow travel, the accumulation of a wealth of connections made with fellow slow travellers. Of course I had family and friends at home but what distinguished the connections I made travelling was that these were people I would not have met in the course of everyday life. It is very easy to find oneself spending time only with people with shared values and interests, the same level of education or income, not our of any deliberate choice but just because it's the way things happen."

I miss home sometimes but I couldn't imagine giving up/not having the connections I've made over the past 4 or so years. I have met so many people, some of whom I can only correspond with occasionally over email (and hopefully Skype soon as we finally picked an internet provider for home) as I've moved on as have some of them...back to home, or on to somewhere new yet again. When you stay in the same place most of your life, you tend not to get out there and meet new people, and sometimes you complain that you're not doing so, but for the most part, you are complacent and don't do much about it. I haven't had that option...and it's fantastic.