Why travel is the best education
Have you felt the satisfaction of striking off a new place in your list of places to visit? Those who have would know what travelling is all about. For others, read this article and start exploring. We all know that travelling the world is a great way to force personal growth and experience life through an entirely new lens. We also know that there are certain skills that one can learn while travelling which can’t be acquired from any course or textbook. If you aren’t aware, then this article will help you reinstate the fact that travelling is a wholesome experience and why we should pack our bags and explore whenever we can.
Humility
Seeing people with nothing yet living happy lives is incredibly humbling for a lot of different reasons. We tend to fixate on what matters in our lives and are always looking for more. At the same time, when we see someone in another country who doesn’t have much and is still living an incredibly happy life, we begin to question ourselves. We look around and ask, “What are the things I’m focusing on? Why are they taking all my time and attention? Are they important?” When we delve deeper, we find the answer that they are not that important. There are only a few things in life that are important, and the most important one is to be happy!
Life-skills
Invaluable life skills that one learns from travelling are time management, organisation, and interaction with new people. Learning to protect ourselves, self-sustenance, and street-smartness are by-products of travelling too. We’ve got to be out there to know how to play the game all by ourselves. We don’t get these skills by simply reading about them in travel itineraries or books; we acquire them by being out there and experiencing them first-hand. We see it, view it, and we do it.
Self-introspection
Travelling teaches us a lot about ourselves. It allows us to be uninfluenced by people who are a part of our world. Everything that revolves around us, especially negative thoughts, tends to disappear when we find ourselves in a new place. Here, we can create new thoughts and find new people to share new experiences with. We learn about our intuition, our likes, and dislikes, what we are drawn to and what we are repulsed by, where we want to be, and with whom we want to spend our time — the list is endless. We end up recognising ourselves more than we would otherwise.
Perspective
Travelling is much more than just packing our bags and visiting someplace for a break from the monotonous routine of everyday life. One of the most important learnings that one attains from travelling is that an individual’s perspective enhances multi-folds. In such circumstances, practical knowledge becomes far superior to theoretical knowledge. With these enhanced perspectives, one can share their experiences and enlighten not only their members but friends and other acquaintances as well.
Social media detox
We’re living at a time when social media is almost at the forefront of our lives. Everything we want to do, anything we want to share with our friends for various reasons, whether it be work or play, goes through social media. We are still to know the ramifications of being on social media all the time. When we travel, there are instances when we are offline or distant from our phones. When we explore and undertake a journey, our first reaction should be to live the moment with our naked eye; to be in the moment and get consumed by it wholly. After that, we can think about sharing it on our social media handles with our peers. Unplugging from social media is extremely important, and there are a lot of ways that travelling forces us to do that.
Happy high
Courtesy of our hectic schedules, we have forgotten how to be happy. Every day is an endless circle of the same thing without making much progress in any direction. As clichéd as it may sound, travelling is known for uplifting the mood. Every person is different so it is obvious that the level of excitement would differ for every adventure. I feel that whenever we set out for a new journey, we gain a new perspective as we are exposed to unfamiliar surroundings and unknown people. The learnings, as well as the confidence we gather from these excursions, make us feel more accomplished. This feeling of being out and doing something is pure happiness. At that moment, we forget what has been bothering us and are rejuvenated for challenges that lay ahead of us.
Beyond the bubble
We all are, generally speaking, creatures of habit who are happy living in our comfort zones. When we travel, we leave that bubble and experience things that we might not have witnessed before. Travelling broadens our thought process as we find ourselves in a new environment. Do you remember the first time you took a trip? There must have been a lot of thoughts going around in your head. There are so many emotions that come with such trips as one doesn’t know what will happen and what is to be done in a foreign place. But once we cross that barrier, we become more accustomed to not just the place but also different languages and cultures. From the limited knowledge that we had, we continuously upgrade ourselves and grow through travelling. Every breath we take in this new place is a new breath out of our comfort zone. This breath, in return, becomes a part of our memories.
Growth
When we travel, we have to face numerous challenges. These challenges help us grow not just physically but also mentally, spiritually, and emotionally. For some, a journey may result in minute changes in their lifestyle or being, while for others, it may change their core values and beliefs basis what they learned and experienced. By being in an intense learning environment, we become more accepting, kind, less critical, less judgmental, and more tolerant towards others. This growth is comparable to attaining maturity. It also helps us know about different cultures. Experiencing a culture shock is an incredible feeling. It happens when one immerses themselves in an environment that’s completely different from theirs. By doing so, we immediately learn about the differences and similarities that are there in the two cultures. We make comparisons and, in the process, we learn that there’s no right or wrong way to live despite the differences around the world.
Little joys
If we aspire to travel, we need to fix ourselves to a budget. Travelling teaches us to be minimalistic. We learn and appreciate the little things in life. When one’s entire possession consists of a backpack and a passport, they’ll know how to cherish every moment. Our desires to have a big house or a fancy car or other materialistic things that we might have been accumulating over the years will never match the satisfaction that one gets by striking off a new place on their list. Happiness is not a tangible thing; it’s a feeling. Once we learn to tap into that feeling, everything else that we buy or own, becomes a reflection of how we feel inside.
I hope this article serves as an inspiration for all those who have been eagerly waiting for the world to recuperate so that they can travel again. For others who are oblivious to the benefits of travelling, I need not say more. Travel once and experience it yourself.
