Why we travel?
Outline
1. Your travels
2. Why travel?
3. Why travel top 10
4. Why should young people travel?
5. Why don't Americans travel?
6. Self-imposed Isolation
7. Long way Round / Long Way Down review
8. A geographer's perspective
Your travels
I have travelled in the States only. I’ve been to every state bordering my home state of Missouri other than Tennessee and Kentucky. I now live in Nebraska. I’ve done school trips from Minnesota to Indiana to Washington D.C. In the last year and a half I’ve taken two vacations: Chicago (so much history and fun!) and Florida (my first time at a beach and seeing the ocean). My boyfriend and I went to New Orleans over Thanksgiving break as his best friend moved there for his fiance’s job. This summer, we are vacationing to Boston!
She explains to her friends that she’s traveling to broaden her horizons. It is hard to put into words these kinds of things, especially being from a small town. Being from a town under 10,000 in northwest Missouri, I can relate. I always talked about how I wanted to leave Missouri and move away and it was always followed up with, “But why would you want to leave?”
Her travel to India was probably my favorite to read about. I’ve considered India before somewhat briefly, but put it off because of the sheer density of the population there. Her statement, “I found that I could take nothing for granted,” really settled in my heart. As people, and Americans for that matter, forget how truly blessed we are and the little things we take for granted. Telling the story of carrying a water bottle until she passed a trashcan and being told that all of India is a trashcan was very humbling. Even things so commonplace as a trashcan is a luxury in other countries in the world! It is easy to forget things like this. It makes my complaints about finding good dairy-free yogurt silly.
It is hard to only pick three reasons – many more are compelling! I think the most important to me would be about finding myself. I have always been so confused with who I am and what I want to be in life – I have changed my major 8 times after all… I know how I feel living in Nebraska, four hours from my dad, and being away for a week in Florida, but I would be curious to see how I would be in another country. I watch House Hunters International religiously and always tell myself that one day I will move to another country. I have always heard that you discover so much about yourself on a whole other level after being in a foreign country.
The next would be unforgettable moments and experiences. I have always taken pictures and such on vacations, but when in Chicago and Florida in the last couple of years, I really made myself “be present.” We get so concerned with preserving the moment with pictures nowadays we forget to actually be in the moment. Another country is not like another state because it is not something you can do very often – it can be very expensive just with flights alone! These moments and experiences really are something special, it isn’t like you can go to the top of the Eiffel Tower in the USA!
I think my third benefit of choice is that it makes you more tolerant. As a future educator (and in high school and/or college no less!) tolerance is huge. In fact, a class I am in now is about creating bias-free classrooms! Experiencing other cultures and learning new things is exceptionally helpful. I love the idea of the knowledge I would gain and the experiences in other cultures and really applying that to my everyday life and career.
Why should young people travel?
Peterson said that travel is important for young people because: you break out of your comfort zone; build confidence; develop cultural sensitivity; adapt to globalization; be immersed in another language; infinite opportunities to network. Most of these reasons she lists for traveling were also included in the previous sections article. All of these are greatly important, but I would also include memories and experiences. Cultural sensitivity, adapting to globalization, and immersion in another language are huge to me, again going back to my future as an educator.
We tend to forget that there is more in the world outside of our phones, game consoles, jobs, and homework. I think that this article did a good job of reinstilling this in my mind. While we are young and have less responsibilities is the perfect time to explore the world!
American’s aren’t traveling because we get too comfortable in our environment. We get so immersed in the “American ideal,” technology, and the hustle and bustle of going to work, going home, bed, and repeat that we forget there is more out there to experience. From my experience, it’s always “too much money, not enough free time,” but if I stop eating at the mall on my breaks at work and stop buying so many clothes, I would honestly have the money in half a year or so!
The article also mentions that the US also has diversity, which is true – we are the melting pot after all. This is a true statement, we have everything from mountains to deserts to forests, but a lot of the cultural diversity is in little bubbles on their own and more “Americanized” in my opinion. Nothing beats exploring and being immersed in another culture in its homeland, where everyone around them is similar in culture, cannot be experienced in the US.
Self-imposed Isolation?
It is hard for me to pinpoint a person I know with “self-imposed” isolation, but I know of one. I have a friend who has always been on the wealthier side – never hungry and always having some of the best of the best. They work very hard, going to nursing school full-time and working fifty-plus hours a week, they have now bought a home at nineteen years old – whereas I myself just started truly renting at twenty-one! She has had a few opportunities that I was around to witness that they have turned down, like a five day cruise. It was going to be planned on a break in school and several months ahead to where they can plan around work.
This person I know is very habitual so to speak in their ways – everything is a certain way and I was very surprised to learn they eloped! They ended up declining the cruise. They could not afford to miss work even the cruise was being paid for by their parents. They offered to help as they can that month, but she still refused.
Long way Round / Long way Down review
I enjoyed these series! I loved seeing the rallying support as they embarked on their journey. Their being inspired by UNICEF is a similarity between them and I. When I was at Northwest, myself and a group of others started a UNICEF Campus Initiative chapter. It was an eye-opening experience to be a part of that in varying degrees, to experience it as they did I would imagine is even more humbling.
Wollaston’s review was an interesting take. I was reading it and expected it to be fully negative halfway through, but I appreciated his views both positive and negative. He comments on how their journey is so different from their hero Ted Simon’s – from the miles to the countries visited to how they go about it. I don’t disagree with some of his points – Long Way Round would make me think exactly that, taking the scenic and long way about things and seeing more, but I still think the title is fitting.
I agreed his saying that it was still enjoyable. It was a relatable series, not something scripted like what you may see otherwise. We don’t see the good and the good only, but the “uglier” side, lie how things become hard for them in Mongolia.
A Missing Geographic Perspective
Knowledge about Mongolia would probably have been the most beneficial to them. Motorcycles may have been their mode of choice, and they may have worked swimmingly almost everywhere, but Mongolia was a whole different ballfield. I think that if they would have taken the time to research Mongolia, learned a little more about the country geographically, they could have been more prepared for that leg of the race so to speak, or worst case scenario alter their route to accommodate.
Submitted by Alyxis Jennings on February 2, 2019.