“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.” – Mark Twain.
There’s nothing quite like travelling and drinking in different cultures, soaking in different ways of life, meeting new people and seeing the many different aspects of humanity to get a whole new perspective about the world and learn some important, unforgettable lessons about life. Here we list down a few of them. Hopefully they will help you get started on that trip you’ve been meaning to do for so long but have been putting it off time and again over a variety of reasons.
Discover the Beauty of Getting Lost
There’s a big difference between being a traveller and being a tourist. The former doesn’t require a fixed itinerary or a select set of places to visit. Instead, a travellers go where their feet take them, enjoying the beauty of being lost in an unknown land, meeting new people, making memories for life and drinking in the sights and experiences that these places bring. There is so much to explore, most of it not mentioned in guide books or travel magazines, it can only be explored by yourself. So go on, get lost in the beauty.
Absorb New Cultures & Soak in History
New places bring you in contact with their rich culture and varied history, history which goes back thousands of years, to the earliest of human civilizations and the way the changing civilizations and cultures shaped the world, and in turn, were shaped by it. Only first-hand experience can make you truly appreciate the vastness of history and the many facets of culture. This can be awe-inspiring as one realizes just how far the human race has come over millennia, ever-changing and growing.
Languages & People Skills
Visiting different places makes you appreciate the value of a universal language like English. But sometimes, even that isn’t enough, and you have to try your hand at the local language to make any headway, thus making you appreciate a new language and begin learning it. As you fumble and make your way through the language and you try to explain your predicament to the locals with a mixture of words and gestures, you improve your people skills and become adept at communication, understanding the value of patience. You also learn to think of creative ways to solve problems you are stuck in, thereby further improving yourself.
Experience New Cuisines
Travelling brings you in touch with many new and different cuisines from all over the world, and once you are over the initial fear of trying something new – something which you may be wary of – you eventually appreciate it, and even if you don’t, it still remains a novel experience, one which you can look back on fondly and chuckle at. Beyond that, it also makes you appreciate and fall in love with new foods and cooking styles.
Understand Compassion & Humanity
There’s nothing like travelling and seeing the world for what it really is – without media propaganda to guide you – that makes you more tolerant and understanding of others. Seeing people go about their daily lives just like you do, or suffer through their days and share in their hopes and fears, that you understand compassion and realize that we are all the same; humans before everything else.
Travelling opens your eyes to the world and makes you a more compassionate and tolerant individual, one with respect for humanity and human life. It makes you a better person, teaching you things that nothing else can. And so, I urge you, travel, see the world and delight in its beauty. You were meant to fly, my friends.
