One evening, someone asked me something to the effect of “Why is it that people who travel seem to be years ahead of those who haven’t?” I shared some thoughts, but the question still stuck in the back of my head. I know traveling has been paramount for my own self development, but I didn’t articulate everything at that dinner quite how I wanted to.
When you google “what does travel teach you” you basically are reading the same 10-15 points reworded: Travel teaches you to get out of your comfort zone, to enjoy the moment, to be creative, to do what scares you, to be humble, and most importantly, that you are stronger than you believe. I can resonate with all of these things. However, it is not traveling that teaches these lessons. To learn these things, you simply have to be placed in situations where you can learn the lesson.
Travel is an art. The traveler can go and traverse cultures and languages and is inspired by the unknown with the hopes of finding connections. The lessons learned from travelling are the same lessons that could be learned through any art – be it an art of the body or of the mind or spirit. The real teacher of all these arts is resistance. Travel is vessel that the student uses to expose themselves to the lessons they are invited to master.
It wasn’t necessary to fly to Bulgaria to get out of my comfort zone, nor only having 24 hours in Miami to teach me to be “enjoying the moment” or finding odd visa loop holes in foreign countries to be “creative” or zip lining on crumbling buildings in Mexico to “do what scares me” or relying on my friends in Argentina for me to learn to “be humble” or hitting rock bottom in Europe to know that I am “stronger than I believe.” But by being placed in these situations, that might have not happened in Ohio, I was able to grow.
Like any art, how much the student is willing to learn and absorb will show how effective the results will be. And, like all lessons taught by the teacher that is the resistance, the more obstacles one has to overcome, the more opportunities for the journey to be fulfilling. As Beethoven once said, “Don’t only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets, for it and knowledge can raise men to the divine.”
This is not an anti-travel manifesto; I want to reiterate to those who do not have the chance to leave behind everything, there are other ways to learn and embrace the lessons found on the road. In a world where we have to communicate less each day, where having to accept you may not know everything or knowledge is not a google away, there might be no better form than travel to truly remind us that there is beauty in not knowing and that inner strength is found once we let go of our preconceived self. Perhaps this is why those who travel far from home makes you “years ahead” of those who haven’t. It equips you with life skills that perhaps never were to happen back wherever you call home. By embracing travelling even if just for a little while, you choose to accelerate and expose yourself to another life, giving you two lives of wisdom and experience to rely on.
Until next time,
Ross