1. The Appreciation Of Other Cultures
Experiencing culture is completely different from learning about it in a classroom. Whether it’s visiting art museums, looking at grand architectural landmarks, or even just stopping for a coffee break in a buzzing café, you’re exposed to people and lifestyles that are completely different from any you’ve encountered back at home. Picking up on local customs and falling in love with food that you can barely pronounce are just part of the experience!
2. Patience
In general, life never seems to go to plan when you’re on holiday; lost luggage, confusing directions, awful transport issues, and so on. But you can learn a whole lot from these issues. You can teach yourself how to be a more patient person in your every day life back home as well as keeping your head about you when abroad.
3. The importance of unplugging from social media
Whether you like it or not, social media takes up a lot of our time. Whether it’s work or just social it can be really distracting and even damaging. So the best thing about travel is the fact that we’re often cut off from any Internet. We stop caring about what others are doing and instead focus on having fun and living. Memories last a lifetime, and you don’t have to upload them to every social media account to appreciate them.
4. How to live in the moment
It seems that a lot of people these days, especially students, spend a lot of time worrying about their future. Travelling, offers a chance for us all to stop and just enjoy the moment. Waking up in a new, unexplored country stimulates excitement, making it nearly impossible to worry about the future or obsess over the past. It’s important to take home the idea that there’s no point in dwelling on things out of your control, instead, enjoy every minute like it’s your last.
5. We are not so different
Everyone around the world wants to be safe, successful, and live a life we can be proud of. This is regardless of culture, skin color, geographical location, or language. By never leaving your comfort zone it’s easy to begin thinking in terms of “us vs. them”, but nothing can be further from the truth. Once you travel, you realize that the entire globe is all striving towards the same goal: happiness.
6. The world isn’t as scary as you’ve been led to believe
Watching the news can make the world look like a very dark and dangerous place, but in all honesty nothing could be further from the truth. There will always be danger out there, but if you keep your wits about you, you’ll more than likely realize it’s actually a much brighter and inspirational place than the one you first perceived.
7. You’re a lot more capable than you ever thought you could be
People always say that travel is a transformative experience, and that generally comes from realizing that you are capable of far more than you ever could have imagined. Whether it’s learning a completely new language in a new country, making friends with complete strangers, dealing with unruly crowds, or even efficiently planning a vacation, when you look back on your travels you should feel a sense of pride. No matter what’s thrown at you, whether it be abroad or at home, you will realize you are capable of rising to the challenge and, most importantly, accomplishing it.
8. There’s no place like home.
Travelling abroad is a deeply rewarding experience, however, there’s nothing like coming home. Traveling to other places will remind you that your home is absolutely perfect and that you should take nothing for granted.
9. Day to day problems aren’t really “problems”
Often, the small things seem to hit us the hardest when we get caught up in our own little world; a bad haircut or spilling coffee on your favorite shirt are life shattering. But once you travel you realize that your problems really aren’t that much of a problem. Seeing how the rest of the world lives first-hand in comparison to you makes you realize that most people in other countries always have a smile on their face no matter what life throws at them. They make the most of what they have, whether it be a lot or not so much, they just seem to get on with it and enjoy life, so why shouldn’t we?
10. Stay humble
In a world where we are taught money is happiness we tend to lose ourselves in feeling the most important when we have the most money. Travelling teaches you to know exactly your place, nothing more and nothing less. You begin to feel a sense of modesty when you honestly take somebody or something, as it is, no judgments. It means not showcasing what you have or what you have achieved because you realize that there is no scale to measure how great you are vs. how great someone else is. I think the most important thing amongst this that travelling teaches us is that money can make you rich, but a greater happiness comes with a wealth of experiences and accomplishments and memories.
