Benefits of Travel
As a Minnesota kid that grew up around plains and corn fields all my life, experiencing other types of geological formation is always categorically astonishing. Sitting where I am now, gazing at the mountains while on vacation in Colorado Springs, I started to think about what makes travel and experiencing new adventures so universally treasured. I believe it goes deeper than just taking a break from your routine, although taking time to relax and reset is imperative. I reflected on some of my own experiences and what I’ve gained from others’ experiences and put together a short list of what really makes traveling so meaningful:
The ability to see things you have never seen before
…Or at least only in photos or on television. With the current state of GoogleMaps allowing people to see an incredible range of whatever they want to search for on the planet from a street view (which often tends to be just their own home for some reason, but at least the technology is there), the great wonders of the world may seem to have lost a little allure.
That is, of course, until you see one in person. Sure, technology provides an excess of accessibility – you can take virtual tours, flyovers recorded by drone, or even experience places vicariously through a friend or relative sharing their experiences on social media; however, it absolutely won’t do the real thing justice. Go stand on the edge of the Grand Canyon. Stick your toes in the Atlantic Ocean. Walk through the Redwood National Park. It’s been my overwhelming experience to this point that real life adventures will always heavily outweigh any artificial experiences created by today’s technology.
It broadens your perspective
Regardless of where you live, it’s essentially unavoidable that you are living in some sort of bubble whether you like it or not. I will concede that clearly, the Los Angeles bubble varies substantially from the small town Minnesota bubble that I am excessively familiar with, but traveling to a completely new area allows you to see an entirely different piece of culture/life that you haven’t seen before, and impacts the way you think about your current life choices.
Think about it – when you experience a new place with a culture, climate, terrain, language, honestly anything – you are always either reaffirming or challenging your current status quo. Do I value mountains over the midwestern plains? Have you been undervaluing how much you enjoy the beach? It’s really difficult to analyze what you prefer or enjoy unless you push yourself to experience diversity both social and physical in the world around you.
It provides great practice for improving patience and adaptability
“Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.”
I think the United States Marines had different obstacles in mind when adopting those three words as one of their mantras, but they apply in the travel world as well.
It’s not very often, if ever, that a trip that stays exactly true to the initial agenda with no bumps in the road – it just doesn’t happen. You can plan, and plan, and plan some more in an attempt to prepare for every contingency, and all of a sudden a storm comes through and your flight is canceled, ruining all of your plans.
There are a ton of decisions to be made when traveling, both large and small. People often find themselves a little out of their element and easily become a little tense, and then when things go wrong they don’t have a good mindset to identify the root of the problem and find a solution. Get out there and put yourself in some new situations and through that practice, you will find yourself much more inclined to be patient and logical when things go awry.
Found woven into each of these benefits of travel is the recurring theme that traveling to a new place and experiencing a new part of the world will create lifelong memories to look back on – good or bad – and it will strengthen your relationship with those you travel with (and if traveling alone, yourself, which is equally as important in my opinion). There is so much to be learned from putting yourself into new or even uncomfortable situations in a new place, but I believe that the positive impact is magnified by experiencing those things with people you care about.
As I often do at the end of my posts, I want to leave you with some encouragement to take up your own adventure and see if you agree with me. The world is a massive melting pot of culture, geography, and ideology – why not go experience as much of it as you possibly can?
