Elizabeth Waddington
Travel can change your life. Stepping outside your comfort zone and heading out into the big, wide world can truly be an eye-opening experience. As you explore new countries, have new experiences and meet a range of different people, you will truly gain a new perspective on life. Travel can change and improve you in ways you never imagined. It will even make you question life and everything else.
What You See
Seeing the natural wonders of the world can really help you to feel a connection with the planet on which we live and to see that you are just one small part of a greater whole. Everything is connected and travel helps you to see that.
While, when living a daily, humdrum existence, it is easy to become disconnected from the food we eat, the waste we create daily, wider societal issues and what we are doing to our planet, travel can help you see that we must transition to a new and more sustainable way of life. The impact of things you see on your travels could have a profound impact on how you live your life when you get home.
What You Hear
Travellers are also inspired by the people they meet. Both the locals at your destination and fellow travellers can all share with you their takes on the world and seeing the world through strangers’ eyes can really have an impact on the impressions you form and the opinions you hold.
A chance encounter can lead to a new political engagement, an unexpected rapport can bring hope for our collective future, casual chats can lead to life changing decisions.
Listening to the people you meet on your travels will give you access to a wider range of views and outlooks than you are likely to encounter on a daily basis at home. Your mind could be well and truly blown.
The Connections You Make
Forging connections with people you meet on your travels and making connections between the various things you see and do can help you to have a greater appreciation for the interconnectedness of all things and the small differences and variety you encounter in the human beings you meet will only serve to give you a greater appreciation for the common humanity that we all share. People can be very different but meeting a lot of them while travelling just enforces the fact that we are all so very much the same.
Also Read: If You Don’t Get Homesick When You Travel, It Doesn’t Mean You’re Evil
The things you see and the things you hear, the connections you make, all of these serve to reinforce the great beauty of the world and its inhabitants. Meeting a range of different people from a range of different backgrounds does allow you to see the goodness inherent in humanity.
When we travel we see the good and the bad, the hopeful and the depressing. Travelling puts everything into perspective. Big things lead to dramatic change but little things, the unimportant trivia, cease to matter at all.
