What are your NEWS compass points?

Let’s play a game. Not really a game, just some fun they I’ve wanted to experiment with a bit this past week.

Were you ever told that the word ‘news’ is an acronym for the cardinal directions north, east, west, south? I was taught this by some teacher in junior high or high school, I forget which. Well guess what? It’s wrong.

Today, however, I’m going to make up a game using this as an acronym. Here’s how it works:

What are the furthest points north, east, west and south that you have been to? To make this easier, you can use your place of birth as the starting point, since east and west are more or less relative (New York is west of London, but east of San Francisco, for instance). I guess technically the Prime Meridian would be a more accurate starting point, although not everyone has crossed this.

This is how my NEWS looks right now:

North: Oslo, Norway (April, 2013 | 59.9500° N, 10.7500° E)

East: Stockholm, Sweden (April, 2013 | 59.3294° N, 18.0686° E)

West: Honolulu, Hawaii (March, 2006 | 21.3000° N, 157.8167° W)
South: Honolulu, Hawaii (March, 2006 | 21.3000° N, 157.8167° W)

There is no real point to this, I just I find it interesting to observe. There is no medal to be won in contesting who has the widest NEWS ranges. People have different comfort levels and circumstances when it comes to travel. I’ve met and known people that have never ventured much further from their place of birth, and I’ve met someone who has visited every country in the world. Both are fine so long as one is happy, although I will certainly champion the virtues of travel.

Being a triple Sagittarius (similar to this guy) and having been exposed to travel at an early age (while going without for much of my teenage years), I’ve had a natural propensity to explore the world and expand on my NEWS, although it has certainly taken longer to expand to where it is now than I was hoping it would. I am grateful that I have been able to travel as much as I have, and I plan to continue stretching this range even further in the near future.

Another thing I find interesting to observe is how my NEWS has changed over time. Looking at the dates it’s easy to see these four points came from just two trips. Prior to last year, my north was Seattle (2012) and before that probably somewhere in Minnesota back in the early to mid-1980s. My east would’ve been the middle of Cape Cod (my final high school tennis match in 1998).

As for the west? That would’ve previously been Las Vegas (I was in sixth grade, not the ideal time to go there). South? Key Largo, Florida (my first week living in the Sunshine State in 2003).

What are your NEWS compass points? Where would you like your next points to be?