TRAVEL makes one a better person

As you grow older, I encourage you to do a lot of one thing… travel. Most people like traveling because it’s fun, but it also builds character and maturity faster than anything can. 

Travel makes one a better person simply because… 

Traveling humbles you and teaches you new things. As children we learn how to navigate the world by mimicking the people we’re raised around. We don’t question whether there’s a better way to do things. We just assume that the way the people around us think and behave is the way to think and behave. The longer we repeat these thoughts and behaviors the more ingrained they become. No doubt you know some old person who has been thinking and behaving the same way for so long that there’s no hope of them ever changing even though it’s obvious to you that they’re hopelessly out of date. That’s because the more ingrained our old patterns of thought and behavior become the more invested we become in our culture. Now, every culture does some things better than others and some things worse than others. No matter how great your culture is, it’s still incomplete. There are invaluable life lessons to be learned from other cultures that you could never possibly imagine because they’re so far outside your experiences. The more you travel the more you see this, the more it breaks down your prejudices and preconceived notions, the more it opens your eyes. 

Traveling teaches you how to adapt. I’ve heard stories about Americans flying to Germany, stepping off the plane and upon hearing everyone speaking a different language they freak out and board the next plane back to America. On the other hand, you can drop a world traveler in the middle of any city on the planet and they settle in and navigate their environment like a special ops soldier dropped in the wilderness. This skill isn’t just useful for getting dropped in a foreign city though. There are new experiences around every corner, even in the city you’ve spent your entire life. If you consistently run from new experiences it cripples your ability to thrive in any environment. If you consistently accept the challenge of life it trains you to thrive in any environment and live proactively with self-determination instead of letting the tides of life bash you into the rocks. 

Traveling makes you a more animated person. Every culture has its own idiosyncrasies, cultural nuances, stories and forms of art. How bland would your tastes be if the only food you ever ate was McDonalds? How bland would your style be if you only wore clothes from PeopleArePeople? How bland would your vocabulary be if you never heard a foreign word? How bland would your mind be if you never heard any stories except the ones of your ancestors? I lament the fact that there are still a number of places I’ve never been, so many people I’ve never met and so many stories I’ve never heard because I know that my personality is more bland because of it. Yet I know people who have never left the county I graduated high school in, and they’re proud as hell about it, but in the end they’re really just celebrating how mundane their life and thus their personality is. 

Traveling gives you more complete perspective of how the world works. I once met a German who explained to me that America’s fanatic patriotism is a mirror image of the same blind nationalism that handed Germany over to the Nazis. I once met a South African who explained to me that black Africans view African Americans as white. I once met an African American who explained to me that African Americans call each other “nigger” as a way of conquering that dirty word. I once met an Australian who explained how “Australia looks towards America” and “New Zealand looks towards Europe.” I never knew what abject poverty was until I visited Tangier where they trade people for Camels. I didn’t understand globalization until I saw a Bulgarian walking through the mall of Palma De Mallorca in Spain carrying two giant bags of KFC chicken. I never knew how sexually repressed America is until I went to a topless beach in Nice, France. Every culture you visit is another piece of the puzzle. The more you see, the more you’ll understand. The less you’ve seen, the less pieces you have to work with and the less empowered your mind is. 

Traveling makes you a more complete person. That’s what all of this adds up to. “Knowing is half the battle.” “The more you know, the more you grow.” I can tell you all of this, and you can comprehend it rationally, but until you actually step out of your comfort zone and into a new world, you’ll never truly understand it. Of course, this presents a conundrum. Even if you could visit every country in the world you still wouldn’t have enough time to spend in each country to fully digest what it has to offer. So what does that mean? We’re doomed to ignorance and incompleteness? I suppose technically that’s true, but I like to focus on the positive: each new experience makes you a better person than you were before, and becoming a more complete person is its own reward regardless of what happens tomorrow. The only question is how far you’re going to take yourself?