My European Adventure
Why We All Need To Travel
In the hectic pace of our day to day lives, travel is often just a distant, pleasant thought. We're too busy balancing the day's activities, trying to think straight amid the myriad of thoughts and ideas that are rushing through our heads, and just trying to stay on top of our own lives to sit down and seriously plan a trip abroad. And those are honestly just the reasons why we all need to take time off (no matter how hard it is) to find the time to travel and explore the world we're all a part of.
Traveling gives us all the chance to take a step back from our lives, detach from everything we know, and open ourselves up to all the sights, sounds, ideas and experiences the world has to offer. Travel allows us to get some perspective on our own lives, our thoughts and attitudes on the world, our conditions and preconceptions, and reevaluate all of who we are, where we are and where we're headed in life.
But most importantly, travel allows us all to escape our own realities and explore, experience and understand more of the world we all live in. A world we often forget exists out there - outside of our own lives and realities.
Consider this quote:
Traveling through the world produces a marvelous clarity in the judgment of men. We are all of us confined and enclosed within ourselves,
and see no farther than the end of our nose. This great world is a mirror where we must see ourselves in order to know ourselves. There are so many different
tempers, so many different points of view, judgments, opinions, laws and customs to teach us to judge wisely on our own, and to teach our judgment to
recognize its imperfection and natural weakness.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
Traveling abroad helps us all to realize that there's literally an entire world of possibilities out there. You're exposed to new ideas, values, realities, and cultures - each with its own uniqueness and beauty. And somewhere along the journey you start to realize that there's no real right or wrong way to live or think in the world, and you begin to question your own ideas, values, and beliefs about life. And there's something magical about that process. It fundamentally changes you for the rest of your life.
Traveling Encourages Introspection
While I was traveling abroad on my forty-day european adventure, two attitudes and view-points really struck me. The first was just how much more free, open and liberal the people of Europe are. And the second was how much more family-oriented many of the cultures were - especially the Italians.
It's well known that most of European culture is very open and free. Europe is the land of nude beaches, a drinking age of sixteen or eighteen, and a general attitude more inclined to relaxing, partying and spending time with family than working and pushing for money and material things. It's almost a complete one-hundred and eighty degree turn from most of American culture. And what surprised me was how much more I liked it.
In Europe if you want to smoke you smoke. No one complains and no one gets "high and mighty" and asks you to stop being rude or to go outside. In Europe working to become an artist, a photographer or pushing for any other creative endeavor is valued and respected just as much as going to school and getting a proper education. In Europe drinking and having a good time are welcomed, and you don't see the kind of crazy binge drinking you see in the United States - in my opinion because of the relaxed drinking laws. And finally in Europe, people tell it how it is. They don't sugar coat things. They don't brush around things. They come out and tell you if they like you, if they want to go home with you, or if they think you're a complete douche. And I came to love this unbridled honesty, lack of bullshit, and openess to ideas and ways of doing things that don't fit the "proper" norm of society.
And in Italy I came to really respect and admire how family-oriented and rooted the society is. In America, it's getting harder and harder to find a family that eats together at the table every night or even a few times a week. But in Italy you find families (entire families grand children through grand parents) that leave work or school, take the time off, and come together every day for lunch. And that's an incredibly beautiful thing! It made me question my dedication to my family and my friends, and my beliefs on how much time I should allocate towards them. And I'm a changed person because I've visited the country and seen first hand how different the culture is from my own. And I've really embraced this aspect of their society!
Traveling Spurs Global Thinking
Another phenomenal reason to travel is because it helps you to become more of a global citizen and less of a national one. In a world that is becoming more and more global, it's important to realize that there's an entire world outside of your own. When you travel abroad you become more worldly and experiencd, and you begin to see the world and all of life in a different way. You begin to see everything in a more interconnected and "less personal" way. You begin to realize that your actions, and those of your country, affect the entire world. And you begin to become more mindful of the issues that affect the world like poverty, war, terrorism, disease, environmental health and conservation, global economics, and third-world standards of living. Traveling puts faces to these issues, and brings them to life with real experiences.
The biggest shocker for me on my travels, was to see just how wasteful and uninnovative the United States is in its environmental policies and resource usage. All over Europe I saw people and businesses being mindful of their usage of resources, and doing their best to conserve and mind the environment. This is apparent in their wide use of smart cars and public transportation, incredibly innovative and energy efficient buildings (that are literally everywhere!), and the government's persistence on reducing emmissions and energy consumption.
Europe is the land of innovative and brutally simple ways of saving energy. Britian recently mandated that all appliances within the next two years that are sold within the country will no longer be allowed to have a "standby" mode on them - the device must either be on or off. A simple solution that according to research will reduce energy consumption by 40%. And in Munich, Germany, the city has a giant (and very cool looking) trash incinerator that not only massively reduces the amount of trash that makes its way into landfills, but powers over 150,000 homes in the city each year. What a simple and smart idea! I only wish the United States would do more to be innovative and proactive in investing in and finding ways to easily and efficiently reduce our country's emissions and energy consumption. There's an entire world out there besides our own!
Traveling Re-Ignites Life
The last reason I'll give you to travel, is the simple fact that it re-ignites life. When you travel abroad everything is new, so everything is more vivid, real, beautiful and emotional. You meet so many new people, eat new food, visit new and historic places, and experience every day as if it were beautiful and unique - because it is. In the day-to-day routines of life, we lose that sense of wonder and discovery in the world around us. For the most part, most of our days are very similar to every other day. And so they all seem to just run together. Life may still be fun, exciting and fulfilling. But it's simply doesn't compare to the feeling you get when you travel and discover more and more of the world around you.
Consider this quote:
When you travel, you experience in a very real way, the act of rebirth. You confront completely new situations, the day passes slowly and
on most journeys you don't even speak the language people speak... You begin to attach much more importance to the things around you because your survival
depends on them. You begin to be more accessible to others because they may be able to help you in different situations. And you accept any small favor
from the gods with delight, as if it were an episode you would remember for the rest of your life. At the same time, since all things are new, you see
only the beauty in them and feel happy to be alive!!
PAULO COELHO,
The Pilgrimage
Paulo Coelho is absolutely right when he talks about traveling as being like a rebirth. And it's my wish that everyone that reads this can experience this for themselves. It's my wish for everyone to experience the introspection, global thinking, and reignition of life that comes with traveling to new places and experiencing new cultures and ways of life. There's a whole world out there just waiting to be explored! All you have to do is make the commitment to put the time aside, take the time off, and get out there and explore it.