"Traveling - it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller."
~ Ibn Battuta, Moroccan explorer
Traveling may not be everyone's cup of tea, as it is sometimes exhausting, occasionally throwing you off-course, and uncomfortable - physically & culturally. As travel writer Paul Theroux said it aptly: "Travel is glamorous only in retrospect" ... You may ask: "Who doesn't like traveling?" Well, there is a slight difference between traveling and a vacation.
Now this isn't meant to discourage you, nor is it to suggest that traveling is always tiring, messy or uncomfortable... But that - it is in the Imperfections where the adventure lies, where little surprises spring up, and the rewards can be ten-fold, even transformative for some.
"A traveler without observation is a bird without wings."
~ Moslih Eddin Saadi, Persian poet
Traveling isn't merely about seeing iconic structures, taking pictures proving you've been there and have those checked-off your list. It is also about absorbing the sights, sounds, smell, history, beauty, overall 'feel' of a place, and the interaction with locals which can be fun, insightful and moving.
"One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things."
~ Henry Miller, American writer
People who know me, know that I am a Travel Enthusiast who would highly recommend travel. To me, it is the best education anyone can get - beyond books, where you can feel with all your other senses and have a better understanding of the world we live in.
"Experience, travel - These are as education in themselves"
~ Euripides, classical Greek playwright
Here are some personal benefits one can gain through traveling. Some points may overlap, and I'm sure there are way more benefits Travel can offer. I'm also including quotes from people the world over, that would validate my point :) I hope all these will inspire you to travel!
1. Travel: Breaks our routine, gives us new perspective & makes us feel alive!
"You lose sight of things... and when you travel, everything balances out." ~Daranna Gidel
"Without new experiences, something inside of us sleeps. The sleeper must awaken." ~Frank Herbert
"When one realizes that his life is worthless, he either commits suicide or travels." ~Edward Dahlberg
"The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; It is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land." ~G.K. Chesterton
2. We learn more about ourselves by leaving our comfort zone
Travel usually takes us out of our comfort zone, and only when we push the limits of what is comfortable do we discover the limits of who we really are.
"A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for." ~John A. Shedd
"To travel is to take a journey into yourself." ~Danny Kaye
"Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things - air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky - all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it." ~Cesare Pavese
3. It moves and humbles us
"Traveling tends to magnify all human emotions." ~Peter Hoeg
"Everything you're sure is right can be wrong in another place." ~Barbara Kingsolver
"Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world." ~Scott Cameron
4. Makes us rethink our ol' habits and lifestyles
"Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living." ~Miriam Beard
"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." ~Marcel Proust
"Travel is not really about leaving our homes, but leaving our habits." ~Pico Lyer
"All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it." ~Samuel Johnson
"One of the gladdest moments of human life, methinks, is the departure upon a distant journey into unknown lands. Shaking off with one mighty effort the fetters of habit, the leaden weight of routine, the cloak of many cares and the slavery of home, man feels once more happy." ~Richard Burton
5. It is the journey and the people you meet in your travels that make it memorable
"Half the fun of the travel is the aesthetic of lostness." ~Ray Bradbury
"Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey." ~Fitzhugh Mullan
"Too often... I would hear men boast of the miles covered that day, rarely of what they had seen." ~Louis L'Amour
"Our happiest moments as tourists always seem to come when we stumble upon one thing while in pursuit of something else." ~Lawrence Block
"I can't think of anything that excites a greater sense of childlike wonder than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost everything. Suddenly you are five years old again. You can't read anything, you have only the most rudimentary sense of how things work, you can't even reliably cross a street without endangering your life. Your whole existence becomes a series of interesting guesses." ~Bill Bryson
"The journey, not the arrival matters." ~T.S. Eliot
"I love to travel, but hate to arrive." ~Albert Einstein
6. You learn to appreciate Peace... Yes, world peace ;)
"Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all people cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends." ~Maya Angelou
"Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe." ~Anatole France
"Hitler didn't travel. Stalin didn't travel. Saddam Hussein never traveled. They didn't want to have their orthodoxy challenged." ~Howard Gardner
7. Makes us more Understanding & 'Human'
The more you meet people of different cultures and backgrounds, the more you realise just how fundamentally similar we are as human beings.
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness." ~ Mark Twain
"Adventure is a path. Real adventure -- self-determined, self-motivated, often risky -- forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind -- and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black and white." ~Mark Jenkins
8. Effective Education & Expands our World-view
"I am a passionate traveler, and from the time I was a child, travel formed me as much as my formal education." ~David Rockefeller
"People who don't travel cannot have a global view, all they see is what's in front of them. Those people cannot accept new things because all they know is where they live." ~Martin Yan
"Don't tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you traveled." ~Prophet Mohammed
"The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are." ~Samuel Johnson
"You can't learn in school what the world is going to do next year." ~Henry Ford
"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page." ~St. Augustine
Parting words...
"We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open."
~Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister
This is why the world is my playground, and my classroom! The learning never ends.
Traveling expands our world-view. It makes us a 'bigger', more understanding and hopefully less judgmental person, and enables us to embrace diversity (if only we are open to the idea)... And soon, you'll realise that Diversity is just what makes the world so much more colourful and interesting!
"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
~Mark Twain
Travel when you can... It is the most interesting and effective form of education!
P/S: If you'd like to know How I incorporated Travel in my life, you can check out this Interview I did with A World To Travel - A travel site focused on Round the World experiences, with inspiring travel stories.
