Since writing for this column, I have talked at length about many related topics on traveling, but I never have written about the why. Why travel? Why spend the time, money, and effort to go to another town, city or even another country? Well, simply, travel offers you a new way to see things and new perspectives. Traveling, especially overseas travel, is a mind-altering experience that offers you a new perspective on life.
Even before I joined the Army and got stationed in South Korea, I had been through most of the South Eastern coast, I had been to Chicago, and as a fun fact I was originally born in Boulder, Colorado. From all my travels I realized something, possibly the greatest thing of all about travelling, that is unity. Be it a short trip to Staunton to visit the Blackfriars theater, to planning out my dream visit to Morrocco, the most common and unifying thing of all is that there is a journey you share. Samuel Clemens, known better as Mark Twain wrote “Travel eliminates prejudice and broadens perspectives”, a point in which I believe is the root of understanding empathy. In all the places I have gone, and even in the places that I have lived, I found that most times, those traveling and spending time being a traveler have a greater understanding of the world around them.
Becoming a traveler doesn’t need to be grandiose, nor does it even need to be the most life altering event, but it does need to happen, even if it’s just to go to the one place that has the best Thai food. The next thing that unifies us besides the act of traveling is the food in the places we travel. It can be as simple as finding one of the best places for coffee that you make a weekly pilgrimage to get, or the most exquisite pastries you have had in the hole-in-the-wall café in a place you can’t fully remember. The experience of that helps us understand that there isn’t much difference between where we are and where we have been. To this day, I can’t remember the name of the noodle shop, but it had the first and best udon I had ever tasted. It wasn’t that the noodles were any different, it was that the experience of a noodle shop and the local feel of it made me feel like I was apart of the world. The connection of food and place made for a Bourdain-ian experience.
With recent events and the world becoming increasingly divided, travel offers a chance to see how similar humanity truly is to each other. When you travel abroad, you will notice the commonalities between yourself and the people indigenous to the places you have traveled. Sometimes it’s right in front of you, like a foreign exchange student sitting in a class about literature, or a professor meeting with students to discuss research opportunities. Travel affects everyone no matter where they are, and we as travelers should embrace that change. Just as education will alter how you perceive the world around you, traveling is the practical test for the skills you learn and the application of adaptation.
To quote Anthony Bourdain, “Be a traveler, not a tourist,” meaning observe the culture around you, be a part of it, participate in the local customs and get to know the locals. The greatest way to understand a culture, learn the language, is full immersion. We can only fear what we don’t know and once you experience the unknown, it ceases to bring fear. It is taking that first step to get out of the door that takes the most effort but, when you do step out that first time, things will never be the same. Remember, the goal is the journey, not the destination; make memories along the way and keep your eyes open.
Edited and Reviewed by John Ratliff II
