Friends want life advice? Tell them to travel more
We went looking for reasons to this question, on question-and-answer community Quora.com. In response
community members shared how their own travel experiences shaped their
lives and perspectives, and why they would recommend it to others. Here
are a few of the themes that came up again and again.
You’ll better understand yourself
Travel sometimes forces people into unusual or stressful situations. Doria Arlin Ortega Michel, originally from Mexico, experienced this first-hand on her first night in Denmark, on a completely different continent in a country where she didn’t speak the native language. The airlines lost her luggage, her hotel reservations went missing and she had to navigate a new university campus to find her classes. But the experience made her grow as a person, meet new people and realise that “the world is not as scary as some say.”
Fellow student Fernando Ortega put his travelling experience in similar terms. “You learn what you are made of,” he said. “How long you can walk without rest, how little you can spend… and you also get to discover what kind of things truly interest you.”
One of Ortega’s favourite places is the city of Venice, despite others telling him the city “smells bad because of the water”, had “too many tourists”, or was “too expensive”. Instead of believing what they said, he went, and fell in love with the history of a place where “so many things happened”.
You’ll gain a broader perspective
“When you travel, you are faced with alternative cultures that have a different way of doing, thinking and believing,” said Simon Huggins. “It challenges your assumptions and makes you shift your way of looking at things. When you get home, you come back to your own culture with different eyes and a more questioning mind.”
For Huggins, a trip to Mumbai opened his eyes to how different life could be to his hometown of Banbury, England. From the juxtaposition of slums against the city, the madness of the traffic and the incredible humidity, the sensory inundation was enough to stay with him forever. Years later, they are the details he most vividly recalls – far more than his visit to the Taj Mahal, which he described as “just another building” in the face of his other eye-opening cultural experiences.
You’ll better understand yourself
Travel sometimes forces people into unusual or stressful situations. Doria Arlin Ortega Michel, originally from Mexico, experienced this first-hand on her first night in Denmark, on a completely different continent in a country where she didn’t speak the native language. The airlines lost her luggage, her hotel reservations went missing and she had to navigate a new university campus to find her classes. But the experience made her grow as a person, meet new people and realise that “the world is not as scary as some say.”
- Quora users say travel is a great way to broaden your perspective and understand yourself better. (Thinkstock)
Fellow student Fernando Ortega put his travelling experience in similar terms. “You learn what you are made of,” he said. “How long you can walk without rest, how little you can spend… and you also get to discover what kind of things truly interest you.”
One of Ortega’s favourite places is the city of Venice, despite others telling him the city “smells bad because of the water”, had “too many tourists”, or was “too expensive”. Instead of believing what they said, he went, and fell in love with the history of a place where “so many things happened”.
- Quora user Fernando Ortega fell in love with Venice, despite others telling him the city smelt bad and was too expensive. (Getty)
You’ll gain a broader perspective
“When you travel, you are faced with alternative cultures that have a different way of doing, thinking and believing,” said Simon Huggins. “It challenges your assumptions and makes you shift your way of looking at things. When you get home, you come back to your own culture with different eyes and a more questioning mind.”
For Huggins, a trip to Mumbai opened his eyes to how different life could be to his hometown of Banbury, England. From the juxtaposition of slums against the city, the madness of the traffic and the incredible humidity, the sensory inundation was enough to stay with him forever. Years later, they are the details he most vividly recalls – far more than his visit to the Taj Mahal, which he described as “just another building” in the face of his other eye-opening cultural experiences.
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