20 Unforgettable Lessons You Can Learn From Traveling The World
1. You learn a lot about life.
There is nothing like diving out of your comfort zone to make you realize that you are a newbie in life no matter what your age. There are so many things to learn such as how to get a meal in an Italian restaurant when the menus are in Italian and you don’t speak Italian. (Hint: Go to Duolingo.com and learn some of the basic menu items from where you are going. They also have lots of fun language learning games.)
2. You are never alone.
You can make friends anywhere. Be the first to smile. Make an effort to join in their celebrations or simply ask them questions about their lives. This is all it takes.
3. You meet unforgettable people.
4. You learn to enjoy transient relationships
5. You have to try new things.
Whether you are staring at a menu realizing you have no idea what the items are, or jumping on a bus that you hope will get you somewhere familiar, travel is exciting. You have to do new things. It is all about getting yourself into situations and turning them into amazing experiences.
6. There are no “mistakes”
Ok maybe one or two. Don’t eat anything you would not step on in your bare feet (one of my important life rules) and if the water is not good, don’t drink it or eat anything that has not been cooked.
Other than that, go and have some fun. Read up in the culture before you go and when something goes off plan, turn it into an exciting experience.
Oh and make sure you have an emergency packet of tissues as you never know about train station bathrooms!
7. You find the value in getting lost.
Really! Get lost in a city then wander around. The great thing is there are taxis all over the place and you can always dive into one when you get tired.
There is nothing like being lost in Rome where every street corner has another spectacular sculpture; or being lost in Brussels where every neighborhood has a cluster of bistros or bakeries.
There is so much to see and experience that is not in the guide books. Go off plan and get lost!
8. You get out of your environment
As we live our lives, we keep our heads down and we keep going. Any problems we have, we are in them. When you travel, you get outside of them and can solve them.
We always seem to have solutions for other people’s problems but struggle with our own. That is because we are IN our problems and it is difficult to find solutions to something you are inside of.
9. You learn to forget the plan.
When I travel, I make an outline but not a rigid plan. There are always things I want to see and do, but the last thing I want is to be a slave to a schedule. Make your trip elastic. See what you want to see but leave lots of time to drift.
Visit the church you stumbled on, on your way to the Vatican or just go out and bob in the sea until dinner time.
10. You learn to talk to people
There is nothing like struggling with another language to get you looking at people as they are. Hilarious grammer errors are made and laughs are shared. It is a golden opportunity to fall in love with people.
11. You absorb history.
What do houses look like that have stood for over 300 years? What do churches look like? How were the villages laid out? There is so much history in the most humble village anywhere that you end up absorbing it. When you put present day in context with history, art, music and all the other cultural aspects, it is a rich tapestry indeed.
12. You learn new cuisines
13. You understand a different way of life.
14. You fall in love
15. You learn to change quickly
As you travel, anything can happen and you may end up in a pretty strange situation. The wily traveler learns to change quickly. Travelling is fraught with unknowns. you learn to think on your feet and solve problems efficiently.
16. You learn other languages.
Even if you go to many different places and even if you don’t make a huge effort to learn the languages of the people whose country you visit, simply seeing street signs and restaurant menus teaches you a part of the local language. Hearing a language spoken around you gives you a feel for the rhythm of it and you feel more at home around it.
17. You start to understand different cultures
There is nothing like living amongst people of other cultures to make you understand why people do what they do. Other religions came from somewhere. So did ideas, moral codes and art. Each culture has its treasures. Dig them up and enjoy them.
18. You learn how to travel.
Travelling itself is a skill. After carting around a giant suitcase and trying to stuff it through tiny train doors on an extended visit to Europe, you learn that there are some things you can do without. You learn to decipher railway schedules. You learn what to do when you take the wrong bus and end up God knows where. All of these skills make regular life at home so much easier.
19. You develop confidence.
After travelling and learning all of these new things, you start to realize how smart you are. After all, you made it to your destination, found your connecting flights, ordered food and somehow made it through a new experience. You are pretty resourceful!
20. You find out that we are all one people.
There is nothing like travelling to make you realize that when we talk about going to war with another country, the people that will be harmed are the people you met in the café, the children you saw on their way to school, and the families you see strolling the streets arm in arm in the evening. Suddenly it becomes personal. Suddenly, it is not ok to see them injured or killed.
Of all of the benefits of travelling, I think that this is the most far reaching and the most important. People are our most treasured gifts here in this life. Go meet them. Develop a love for other cultures, religions and lifestyles. Let them see that we are all one too. I believe that if we do this we can change the world, One travelling peace maker at a time.
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