I believe that traveling is something every person should do at least once in their lives.
And I’m not talking a two-hour road trip to see your grandma. Or a short flight away to the nearest beach (although, those quick little trips can be VERY refreshing). I’m talking a week or more trip, with a long-haul flight somewhere across the world. Where the people, the food, and the culture are entirely different than our own.
But I wasn’t always this way.
The Backstory
I grew up in a middle-of-nowhere little town in a tiny house that at one point fit nine people. That’s right… my parents, my five sisters, my one brother, and me. So it is safe to say that money was scarce, and traveling anywhere at all was out of the question. But as I grew, and my siblings started moving out and away (I’m the youngest), things became a little less tight and we were able to take small trips here and there. Mainly to Ruidoso, New Mexico, which is a place that will always have a little piece of my heart.
By the time I went off to college, I had never been on a plane, never been to another country, and I didn’t own a passport. I had seen the mountains once, the beach once, and been to Ruidoso a handful of times. To be honest, looking back I feel like I had very little experience with travel as a kid, but the reality is that I visited more places as a kid than most in my inner circle.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always had my head in the clouds. My friends to this day call me a dreamer. Hawaii was the very first place on my bucket list as a kid, and I’ve been lusting over Paris since I was 12. But I NEVER saw actually visiting as a reality. The idea that you could just hop on a plane and visit these fantastical places was almost laughable to me. No one I knew did that.
It just wasn’t possible.
But at the age of 19, I made a decision. Almost halfway through my sophomore year of college, a college which was only an hour away from my hometown, I knew I was not happy. The college experience I was hoping for hadn’t yet happened. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to change my major… again. My relationship of a year and a half had run its course. I knew I needed to change something in a big way.
The Decision
On a random Sunday afternoon, I was looking through my university’s website for a part-time job when I noticed a link for study abroad trips. I started browsing and saw places like Italy, France, China… and was immediately intrigued. I scrolled down to find which trip my major fell under and I saw New Zealand and Fiji.
Did I read that right? New Zealand AND Fiji?!
I’m pretty sure from the second I saw those words I knew in my heart I had to go. In order to be accepted into the program, you had to write an essay about why I would be a good fit. Even though the essay wasn’t due for a few more weeks, I hammered it out that night and sent it in. There was no doubt in my mind that I was going to do this.
The Work
But, there were a lot of factors working against this trip. Besides the fact that I didn’t have a passport and I didn’t know how I would handle being on a plane for that long (I get very motion sick sometimes), I had to convince my parents. At first, they were definitely not on board. Like I said, no one I knew did this. I also had to fit in more classes into next semester’s schedule in order take this trip, which I did not have time for. Oh, and I had to come up with thousands of dollars within a matter of a few months when I only worked a part time at a flower shop. But… where there’s a will, there’s a way.
After spending a semester taking on a huge course load, saving money, getting sponsors, and handling the logistics of a long-haul trip, summer finally came, and it was time for me to head off to places that less than a year before seemed impossible for me to see in real life. I was about to achieve something that I didn’t even realize I wanted or needed until I was presented with the opportunity.
The Trip
Not to be dramatic or anything, but it was life changing.
And I mean that in every sense of the phrase. The trip completely changed the trajectory of my life. It changed my perspective of people and foreign countries and cultures different than mine. My eyes were opened to the extreme need in some places, and the extreme fortune in others. One day I would spend laying on a beach in Fiji and the next visiting an open-air school with no computers and no windows. I traveled for a month all the way up and down the islands of New Zealand, meeting incredible people and visiting the most advanced elementary schools. I made life-long friends that were complete strangers to me only months before. And instead of satisfying a demand for travel that my heart had ached for for so long, it only intensifed it. When I got home, I couldn’t wait for my next opportunity.
The Change
By the end of that summer, I was 20 years old and right smack-dab in the middle of my college education. I had decided to switch colleges and move towns, so I now had new roommates, a new major, and three new part-time jobs. Another trip was not really in the books at the moment. But I knew that once I graduated and got my first “big girl” job, part of my budget every year would be set aside to travel. This yearning for other places and other people wouldn’t go away.
If it wasn’t for that incredible trip on the other side of the world, I wouldn’t be the person I am today. I wouldn’t view people with as much grace and optimism as I do now. Not to say that I am the kindest or warmest or most gracious person on earth because I definitely have my bad days, but I don’t want to know what I would be like without the change in perspective I gained from visiting those places. Again, I know I sound dramatic, but I’m not saying this for any kind of effect. This trip is a time in my life that I can point to and say that it was a major turning point for me.
If I’m ever feeling depressed, angry, unworthy, close-minded… I know it is time for another travel break.
Traveling far gives you perspective. It opens your heart and mind. It allows you to realize just how small you are in this big world. I am a full believer that God gave us this incredible world in order for us to respectfully explore it. There are so many lessons to learn, people to love on, and so much beauty to admire.
All you have to do is take that first step.
If you’ve never traveled far away before, it will be scary. You’ll have parts of yourself filled with doubt… the “what ifs” will come flooding in. Don’t let that fear hold you back. I know this is starting to sound like some cheesy, inspirational post. But I really do believe in these things – enough to put it out there to the masses. Allow yourself to get away and explore. I promise you won’t regret it!