How International Travel Made Me a Better Person, and How It Can Help You Too!

When I was a teenager, I left the country to go on a "mission trip", which is what they called my twelve days abroad building a school and staring at the locals.  I knew that there had to be a better way, and when my Spanish was up to par, I returned to South America intent on building real relationships.  And I loved it, spending weeks speaking a different language, enjoying new cuisine, and getting to know a place that was completely foreign.  I also learned what real poverty is, and just how much I had to be thankful for.

I traveled a lot after that, going all over the world. One of my favorite trips was to Australia, and Sydney is definitely a city I could see having a second home in.  But the Australia trip was also very disturbing, when I realized just how far behind Australia is when it comes to human rights, and the treatment of its native population.  They made comments to me that were so infuriating I had to walk away, literally.  Other nations build their policies from the examples of the United States, but I feel that they are also very slow to truly learn from them.  Before that trip, I never thought I would say it, but I told someone on the plane ride to our next destination I was glad to be a minority in the US and not someplace else, like Australia.

My most recent trip was to Cape Town, South Africa.  It is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and I highly recommend it.  I loved everything about it.  It is surprisingly diverse.  The city rests between several mountains, and is surrounded by beaches.  But it holds a painful dichotomy of rich and poor.  This is made worse by the fact that I found the individuals I interacted with were so incredibly well-educated, and many street vendors spoke several languages.  While in a small street vendor's shop having my hair braided, I met individuals from all over the continent with diverse backgrounds from all over the world.  

My biggest benefit, I think, of international travel, is that I am not afraid of anything.  I have been all types of places, all over the globe, and nothing scares me anymore.  I really feel that I can take on the world.  I overcame my fear of people, and learned to cope with my social anxiety through travel.  I have gone to places where people did not look like me or did not speak the same language.  I learned to find the universals in people.  Everyone has something in common simply because they are human.  If you realize that, you can connect with anyone, and find those meaningful bonds.  No matter where I have gone, I managed to find someone with whom I could connect, and have friends who are like family all over the globe.  If you can do that with a language barrier, how much easier will it be to create those kinds of bonds in a work setting, with lots in common with the individual in the cubicle next door?

Travel does one more thing though, which I feel everyone would benefit from: it opens your mind.  It expands your horizons on the topics that plague society like societal duty to the poor, race, religion, and gender.  And this helps you whether rich or poor.  Growing up, my parents didn't have a lot of money, but they did a lot for us, and they had a distinctly different approach to life than the parents of many of my friends who lived in the poor working class neighborhood where I grew up.  Instead of nice shoes and clothes as a goal, I would raise money to travel and take part in learning activities, like summer camps and spelling bees.  We didn't fit the mold in our community.  I think a huge part of the perspective my parents held, which allowed them to craft a peculiar childhood for me, was that they both had traveled all over the globe by the age of 21.  My parents had a really "big" view of things, and they passed this on to their children.  So I traveled early and often, and learned a lot about life, even on our shoestring budget.  

It is one thing to hear about the opera house in Sydney; it is another thing to experience it, to stand next to it and touch it, and hear the acoustic balance within its walls.  It is one thing to hear about the pyramids; it is another thing to survey them from the back of a camel.  The experiences gleaned from international travel are invaluable, life changing, and value affirming.  Such experiences teach you to be thankful for what you have, and provide examples on how you and I can improve at home.