Why Travel

For the majority of Americans I interact with on a daily basis, a "vacation" is just seen as the opportunity to do nothing for 1 or 2 weeks each year, and "travel" is merely the alternative for that person who prefers to "do nothing" on a breezy beach instead of staying at home on the couch... Ultimately, I keep encountering this idea that travel is the anti-work; the anti-responsible--and therefore I take a bit of flack for the unsusally high number of trips I take each year. It's often conveyed to me that this is not something a wise person commits a large portion of their time and money to--at least until they reach retirement age when their investments are already settled and life is winding down. I guess the thought is that I should forego travel to prepare for having a family someday and to build up my nest at home; to prepare for "real life."  For me though, the experience of travel is real life. Is it not far more beneficial to see and experience new places than to invest my money into fancy furnishings (that children would end up destorying anyway) and a big screen TV on which I can observe other people seeing & experiencing life? Personally... I prefer to experience life from the "1st person" perspective.

The benefits of traveling go so far beyond an opportunity to decompress from the strain of a day-job, although I won't minimize that advantage. When a person spends 40+ hours every week amidst the ever-repetitive, daily grind, it can be difficult to connect to any deeper purpose in life. Taking some time to step out of our usual existence that is defined by "what we DO" gives us a chance to change perspectives, take deep breaths, and learn "who we ARE," and most importantly how we, as individuals, fit into the bigger picture of this world we all share.

The knowledge a person gains from seeing, tasting, touching, interacting with, and learning from real-life experiences can never be matched in a book or a classroom. Sure, you can visit a neighborhood Italian restaurant chain & curl up to Eat, Pray, Love to imagine a contrived idea of what it might feel like to walk the streets of Rome, but can that ever convey to you the awe of standing in the shadows of the Coliseum? Or teach you how to communicate with a person who speaks another language? It may give you plenty of fodder for daydreams & vague impressions, but it's unlikely that it will ever give you that cognitive understanding that people all over the world, despite differences in customs & traditions, are ultimately just like you in how they need, hunger, love, and dream.

So many prejudices and so much lack of compassion exists in the world, because we don't always make it a priority to learn about the lives and perspective of others. And out of what we neglect to understand-- fear grows, judgement grows, and eventually hate grows. It wasn't until I started following world-wide affairs that I began to understand just how "small" my own world is and how little my base of knowledge covers. My day to day reality is not the reality of people in Cambodia or the Middle East, or for that matter, it isn't even necessarily the reality of another middle-class, twenty-something, woman in New York City or across the street from me. It's true that you have to walk a mile in another man's shoes before you can begin to understand him... But sometimes you need to fly or drive a few thousand miles & abandon your comfort zones in order to start that journey towards understanding.