Thursday, January 19, 2012

21 Benefits of Travel



The narrator’s references to travel have inspired me to reflect on my own passion for traveling outside my home country.  Below are some benefits to traveling that I have experienced throughout my wanderings around the globe.

1.       It prevents stagnation

2.       It opens one’s mind to new ways of living and doing things

3.       It’s a metaphor for life; things don’t always go as planned

4.       You learn to adjust yourself to external forces beyond your control

5.       You are stripped of your usual environment and therefore learn more about yourself

6.       You engage with and make friends with people that have a different background from your own

7.       You learn a new language

8.       You learn patience

9.       You can finally see and appreciate with your own eyes all the places you read about in books

10.   It can inspire you to become more creative

11.   Its brings a sense of adventure into your life

12.   You learn to appreciate different foods

13.   You learn to appreciate different music

14.   You are humbled by how little you are in the vastness of the world

15.   You can revel in the newfound comfort of being a stranger to others

16.   You allow the generosity of strangers to fill you with happiness

17.   You can help clear misconceptions other cultures may have of your culture

18.   You can help clear misconceptions you may have of other cultures

19.   You can find beauty in a place you were not expecting to find it

and therefore

20.   You can gain a new perspective on beauty

and

21.   When you return home with all this fresh outlook on things, you can perhaps discover something new that had been waiting for you all along within your usual surroundings