Traveling is an amazing experience. It doesn’t matter if you visit a country on the other side of the world or go to a city nearby – either way, you’ll be able to notice the differences, big or small, between the place you live and the place you arrived to.
But what’s even more amazing is that you’ll actually be able to learn something from this experience. It’s safe to say that in some cases traveling could be even more educational than a college or a school, expanding your life experience, helping you build new skills, and maybe even turning you into a completely different person.
Here are 7 reasons why it’s so important to distract yourself from coming up with research topics and completing college or work assignments sometimes and go exploring the world instead.
1. Traveling improves social skills.
These days we have all those apps and websites that allow us to meet people from all over the world – yet we slowly become more awkward in communicating with people offline. Social anxiety is a real thing and a widespread problem these days – and it might be the reason you hesitate about going on a journey. But it’s actually one of the reasons you should do so.
None of the personal development courses (assuming there are some in your college in the first place) can help you overcome this issue as effectively as traveling. Talking to other people during your journey is often a must and while this might seem terrifying to you at first, soon it’ll become easier. Moreover, there are actually more people willing to help foreign tourists than you probably think.
2. Traveling makes you independent.
Going to college is the first step towards independence for many. There you learn how to manage your finance, how to take care of yourself, and so on.
However, traveling is a much more challenging step towards that – and more effective as well, especially when you travel alone. When you find yourself on your own in an unfamiliar place and realize that you’re the only one responsible for the decisions you make and for the result of this journey, it might scare you, sure. But when you get through this journey, you’ll realize that you’re capable of more things than you though – and find another reason to be proud of yourself.
3. Traveling boosts your self-esteem.
Speaking of being proud – it’s impossible not to boost your self-esteem in general during your travels. Simply going on a journey means that you are hard-working and focused enough to make this possible. Good traveling requires thorough planning, proper research, time and efforts needed to save money, patience to handle unexpected situations, and so on. It’s a challenge and if you’re able to complete it successfully, you should feel proud of it.
4. Traveling teaches you new things.
Those, who travel far, can learn how to dance the Samba, how to meditate, how to surf or how to ride a camel, for example. But even if you weren’t able to do this yet, this still doesn’t mean that you didn’t learn anything from your travel experience.
Those, who travel often, learn how to do this cheaper (for example, by taking a bus instead of train). They also know where to find the best tickets and accommodation, how to apply for a visa properly, how soon to plan a journey, how to communicate with foreigners, and so on. And while not all of those skills could come in handy in daily life, the experience itself could be quite helpful. For example, you could save more money on planning your shopping the way you plan your trips: by researching the discount periods, knowing where to buy in advance, and so on.
5. Traveling helps you learn history.
While we all have history courses in colleges and schools, it’s not the same as seeing monuments with your own eyes and observing the places where historical events happened. To some of us, this helps remember the history better – and some even become interested in it for the first time in their lives.
Moreover, traveling helps you compare different points of view as well. While you know how the World War II affected your country, for example, you might not how it affected a foreign one until you see it with your own eyes.
6. Traveling broadens your cultural knowledge.
People in foreign countries live differently from us. In some cases, the differences are quite small, but in some they are massive.
Traveling allows you to learn more about these differences and to discover new ones. For example, you might know about Spanish Day of the Dead but did you know that there’s a Finnish tradition called Eukonkanto (wife-carrying) – a race, where men have to compete while carrying women?
7. Traveling helps you understand who you really are.
When you go on a journey, you see for yourself how big the world really is. This could make your problems and challenges feel less significant, which is great. But this also helps you understand who you really are.
After all, you find yourself in a place, where your reputation, your name, and your past mean nothing to people around you. You aren’t limited by expectations of the others and can do whatever you want and try being whoever you want (as long as you remain polite, of course). This could become an eye-opening experience for some of us.
They say life is the best teacher. Life, however, could be a bit static, and it could be hard to learn something new under these circumstances. Traveling, however, is never static, especially if you visit different countries all the time. So if you want something new about yourself, the world around you, and the life itself – pack your bags and go on a journey. It will be worth it.
