How Travel Enriched My Life

I am someone who used to be afraid to travel. Going somewhere new and getting out of my routine was more terrifying than it was exciting. The thought of leaving the comfort of my own home to temporarily live somewhere else, relinquishing my native language, and trying an unfamiliar cuisine made me feel sick with anxiety.

 However, I have always had a deep love for learning, and more specifically, reading. I’d travel by living vicariously through the plot of a book. Soaking up the description of a sandstorm in the Israeli desert, it was almost as if I was there, facedown, protecting myself from the chaotic wind that drove the sand into the air like confetti.

In eighth grade, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert was my favorite book. I know, this is definitely an out-of-the-box pick for a twelve or thirteen-year-old. Eighth grade me couldn’t articulate this, but her growing obsession with self-betterment was the cause for it. The very idea of Gilbert leaving her life and routine behind in order to find herself was absolutely perplexing to me. Why would she distance herself from the hobbies and the people she already knew she loved to learn more about who she is? It seemed like the opposite of the right thing to do.

As I got older and my typical routine became more flexible, life led me to newer environments. These slight pushes outside of my comfort zone allowed me to learn so much about myself in such a short period of time. This came as a complete surprise in the moment, but now I understand that we can only truly explore self-discovery by actively creating new experiences for ourselves.

When I was younger, my grandmother asked me if I liked beets. My immediate response was, “no.” She followed that by asking if I had ever tried them before, which I hadn’t. She then exclaimed, “how do you know you don’t like them if you’ve never tried them?” Spoiler alert: she made me try the beets. I was determined to not like them, but I actually did. This story reminds me a lot of the way that my love for travel developed.

During the two weeks I spent in England and Ireland without my family, I discovered the true importance of meeting people who don’t typically arrange their lives in the way that I do as an American. This made me think more about my politics on a global scale and not just as it pertains to the United States. This expanded my thinking and was crucial for me, especially because this will be my first year voting and I now have a say in who our leaders should be. Additionally, being in fascinating new places put my worries and problems into perspective. Being constantly stimulated by London, Dublin, and Belfast, I was more spontaneous and much less preoccupied by the thoughts that typically take up most of my brain space. I observed every detail, read all of the street signs, and took in every person I met and talked to. It turns out, in a foreign country, I am the best, most lively version of myself.

I began to wonder: How can I bring this feeling home with me?

I discovered that the answer to that question, after much deliberation, is mindfulness. But not the download-an-app-on-your-phone-to-help-you-meditate kind of mindfulness, and certainly not the trendy Neo-Buddhist concept of presence. I realized that the reason I was so involved and attentive to my own life while I was overseas was because I was genuinely excited and interested in something most of the time. If you are really curious about something, you will pay attention to it. This took me on a journey to add things to my daily life that made me think more. They could vary from a captivating conversation to a fact I learned in class to teaching myself to play a new instrument (I picked up the electric guitar and I’m never looking back).

Wherever I am, I try to pick out something new that peaks my interest. This allows me to keep the element of excitement and passion with me always, no matter where I am, but it will never replace the magic that is being somewhere completely new. It took five years, but I am now finally able to appreciate the fact that traveling adds a new sense of purpose and knowledge to each day and completely aligns with my insatiable desire to always be learning and bettering myself.