T W E N T Y F O U R

Travel, Travel, & Travel

I grew up in a tiny town in rural Oregon with a town population of roughly 2,000 people. My high school graduating class had about 32 kids. There was not much diversity in my town, and it was as conservative as you would expect a small rural town to be. Kids would drive to school in their lifted trucks, while a confederate flag would be blowing in the wind in their truck bed. Gratefully, my upbringing was in one of the best environments a kid could ask for, and I had parents that taught me to love everyone. 

I left for college, and everything changed. As I traveled, I exposed myself to more ethnicities, new cultures, and cultural initiatives that I never saw in my hometown. It helped expand my mind, allowing me to become more open-minded and aware of all the different avenues that people come from. 

I went back home to visit every so often and would meet up with some people that never made it out of my hometown after high school, and I was shocked to see that they hadn’t changed their world perspective as much as I had. It made sense, though, because if you don’t expose yourself to a new culture or race and don’t have the ambition to educate yourself on these topics, you play a zero-sum game. 

We are programmed to see whatever someone tells us to see, whether the words come from our parents, teachers, or friends. Those words aren’t always the best words, especially when they are words that have only been smelled, not tasted. With travel, you expand your taste palette, figuratively and literally.

We have to realize we have been conditioned in a certain way and must unlearn the program installed within us while growing up. When you travel, you expose yourself to different ways of life that begin the questioning phase about everything you have supposedly learned. 

This quote spins off the famous saying of walking a mile in another person’s shoes before judging. You hear so much about different cultures, races, ethnicities, and religions, but until you immerse yourself through travel, all you have is opinions built from everywhere but the source.

Overseas travel is one of the most underrated learning experiences available. I would say it’s more valuable than many of the degrees offered at universities. Not only will overseas travel allow you to gain a new worldview, but it causes so much self-growth and awareness, especially if done alone. You learn how to survive on your own.

Figuring out how to get through customs or use the transit system in another country feels like rocket science, but the experience and growth you get from the struggle are priceless. When adventuring to a new location, it is entirely unknown, which correlates with being the most present. You will feel the shift of perspective, if not immediately, then definitely at further stages in your life. 

Traveling also creates gratitude because of all the amazing and beautiful places we can see and experience, thanks to technology. Don’t wait to travel until you’re retired because you can’t predict the future and don’t know what condition your body will be in once you retire or what the world will look like. As you saw with the 2020 epidemic, traveling can come to a halt overnight. Use your vacation days, fake sick days, days off, explore this planet that we miraculously live on, and stretch your mind in awe. 

T W E N T Y F I V E

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