The More I Travel....

I realized (rather obviously) that the reasons I feel I like to travel are based off of previous travel experiences and thus thought it might be interesting to talk a bit about some of the things traveling has taught me, so as to add contextual perspective my prior post.

So:

The more I travel, the more I firmly believe in the goodness of humanity. Not that I assume that people are inherently good, but I derive a lot from seeing people choosing to be good. You’d think some of the things you’re exposed to while traveling would make you lose faith in it, but I’ve had so many little (and a few big) moments where I’ve seen goodness, and trust, and generosity, kindness, etc from total strangers. It’s special and amazing to me and makes me love people all the more.

The more I travel the more I realize what an outlier America is compared to the rest of the world. Really, Americans are a different bunch! I think this has helped me to step outside an ethnocentric perspective and see the ways and reasons Americans are so different (super, super, super individualist, for example) and that’s not only been interesting and question provoking (about why America is the way it is and the implications that has on the choices we make, etc), but has also been helpful for being more aware of my biases and the need to keep that in mind when thinking about future international research and projects and such.

The more I travel, the more I see that things are not always as they appear to be. Even the calm surface of the ocean can have raging currents beneath it. And that’s absolutely fascinating. It’s encouraged me to look more closely and carefully at things and seek to understand the underlying reasons behind things.

The more I travel, the more I see that every argument has two sides. Where one argument presents itself, there is the negative space left behind that was not chosen to be a part of it. This has helped me to look at things from both (if not more) angles, and has helped me to ask questions about the negative space: why is there an absence of a particular policy? Why did one policy get chosen over another? Why did one side of an argument win out over another? This brings up cultural, historical, and a bunch of other contextual questions that are always fascinating to look at and think about.

The more I travel, the more motivated I am to get involved in my community back home. I know that sounds counter-intuitive, but it’s helped me to pin point “needs” (for lack of a better term) more clearly and get more comfortable with stepping up and getting involved.