Travel; It has the ability to take us to places we've only ever dreamed about. Places that challenge our entire being and make us question why we ever hesitated to take the first step. Once the travel bug gets in you, you can’t quite shake the feeling of experiencing new places or the desire to wander where Man has never set foot.

I began traveling at a young age, but it wasn’t until this past year that I started to take it seriously. When you’re young and traveling with family, it’s easy to get distracted from the purpose of travel. But ever since I made travel a major part of my life, I’ve been blown away by not just the Earth’s beauty, but by the beauty of life itself. I still have a lot to learn, but, so far, I’ve found that travel has taught me far more about life and happiness than I could’ve ever imagined.

1. Be yourself.

This one may be a no-brainer, but sometimes we forget that there is no one else like us on the planet. There is only one YOU, so don’t pretend to be someone you’re not just to try and impress those around you. No one likes an impostor and, besides, people will admire you more for being open and honest with them. People don’t travel to meet others just like them; People travel to interact with personalities that differ from their own. If the world was made up of one type of person, it wouldn’t just take the fun out of travel, but it would make for boring conversation.

2. There's beauty in everything.

It’s sad how long it takes some of us to notice the beauty that surrounds us. When we travel, we learn to step away from our hectic lives, so that we finally get a chance to admire our surroundings. Throughout my travels, I’ve learned to find beauty in even the smallest things. From a warm embrace to the curvature of a smile, travel has helped me realize how beautiful it all really is. And once you begin to notice the beautiful details of life, you’ll feel more in touch with the world.

3. Life is worth living.

Sometimes life can get you down. Nothing in life is guaranteed, and it can be frustrating to deal with disappointment; however, it’s when we obsess over our failures that we begin to lose sight of life’s meaning. No matter how stressful life may get, travel has taught me to push through tough times, because life is too precious to give up on when the going gets tough. There have been times in my life when I've contemplated giving up because my problems became too burdensome. But once I learned to fall in love with the world, I realized how rewarding life is, even through its ups and downs.

4. Time is precious.

Time. There never seems to be enough of it. If there’s one thing travel has helped me realize its that, time is best spent making memories. No matter how badly you want time to slow down, it doesn’t, so you can’t afford to spend your time focusing on the “what if’s” of life. You never know how long you’ll end up in one place or how much time you have with someone, but what you’ll start to figure out is how to make time last. From sun up to sun down, there are plenty of opportunities to make the most of time. When time is limited, travel forces us to slow down, so that we are able to fully experience and fully enjoy the beauty that life presents us with. Sometimes we are given only one shot to live out an experience because that’s all time allows. This is why it’s so important to take full advantage of time. Travel has helped me realize the importance of living in the moment and the importance of making the most of the moments that may never happen again. Time is a terrible thing to go to waste, and travel shows you just how rewarding life can be when you spend your time right.

5. Money isn't everything.

It’s no secret that money is necessary for getting by in life, but what I quickly learned from traveling is that money can’t buy you happiness. Sure, it’s okay to want to be successful in life, but people are quick to forget how insignificant money really is when it comes to happiness. I guess we all measure success differently, but travel has taught me the importance of gaining experiences instead of possessions. A closet full of clothes will never satisfy me like the time I jumped out of a perfectly good plane or the time I hiked for eight hours in Norway to see a troll’s tongue. Unlike the memories you gain from travel, money doesn’t last forever. The more you explore the world, the more you begin to realize the worthlessness of money and the worth of experiences.

6. Get comfortable with the uncomfortable.

Who hasn’t heard this before? When it comes to travel, it’s not always rainbows and butterflies. But by placing myself in some of the most uncomfortable situations, I’ve learned that being comfortable is overrated. From being packed in like a sardine aboard an overnight train in India to getting pink eye while stranded on a ferry in Fiji during cyclone season, I’d say being comfortable with the uncomfortable is my specialty. Travel exposes you to so many new experiences, many of which, you may not feel comfortable with. But that’s the beauty of it all. Until you experience discomfort, you haven't experienced travel. You’d be surprised, some of the best travel stories are born from the act of getting uncomfortable.

7. Live life with passion.

Growing up, my mom always stressed the importance of being passionate about what you do in life. The more I travel, the more I’m starting to see the truth behind her words. It’s not rocket science. If you don’t love the direction your life is going in then you’re never going to push yourself to be successful. Travel has helped me connect with the rest of the world, while passion has helped me fall in love with the world all over again. Passion is something that drives us all. It’s a feeling that not only opens our mind to possibility, but a feeling that propels us forward in life. When you have passion, you have fulfillment. And when you feel fulfilled, you gain a better understanding of life’s purpose for you.

8. Experiences are everything.

Without experiences, life would feel pretty empty. Experiences are one of the reasons why life is worth living. Some of my favorite travel experiences have been spent laughing at the dinner table night after night and spent getting lost in Mother Earth’s beauty. I don’t travel to relax or to escape reality. I do it to connect with the world and to expose myself to different ways of life. Experiences, I’ve learned, are not always easy to swallow, but, ultimately, they help transform your life in a positive way. Through experiences, you see, first hand, how people’s lives differ from your own. Not everyone experiences life in exactly the same way. Travel allows us all to gain perspective on what’s important in life and how we can help one another make the journey a little easier. Experiences add meaning to your life and are what shape us as human beings.

9. Challenge yourself.

There’s no better way to challenge yourself than through travel. Challenges are what make life interesting. Whenever I travel, I always try to pick destinations that I know will challenge me both physically and mentally. By learning to challenge myself, I’ve gained so much more confidence. I used to be the person who always declined a challenge out of the fear of failure. But traveling has introduced me to the benefits of facing all of your challenges head on. It’s always good to approach a new challenge with a solid mindset. If you’re not mentally prepared for the task at hand, then your body will lock up and make it more difficult for you to overcome that challenge. Unfortunately, this is something I experience all the time. Once my negativity kicks in, I end up making a challenge 10 times harder than it has to be.

Just recently, I tried ice climbing. Initially, I had trouble forcing my body to lean over a steep glacial drop. Understandable, I think. The thought of willingly throwing myself over the edge of a large drop wasn’t as exhilarating as I thought it would once I found myself peering over the edge; however, after receiving support from fellow travelers, I found that ice climbing was an experience worth trying. Challenges are thrown our way to add a degree of difficulty to life. But once you put yourself out there, and learn to approach each challenge with the right attitude, you’ll discover how easy it is to face your fears.

10. Laugh at yourself.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, travel is full of uncertainty. And if you’re anything like me, it’s all about waiting for the next time I’ll fall flat on my face or when I'll make a complete laughing stock of myself. But that’s why I love travel so much. Because you’re never quite sure when you’ll need to take a step back to have a good laugh. For those that take life too seriously, I urge you to reconsider this way of life. I’ve learned that people tend to gravitate toward others that enjoy a good laugh. Personally, I never take life too seriously, because giving someone something to laugh at is far more satisfying than making someone feel sorry for you. Laughter is the best healer of pain, and getting upset over the little things is not worth missing out on the opportunity to achieve happiness. Life is about smiling until your face hurts and laughing until you cry, because those are the moments that you want people to remember you for.

11. Worry less.

I hate to admit it, but I worry a lot, and about the most meaningless things. Travel has slowly helped me learn to embrace the things that are out of my control. Before travel, I always worried about what others thought about me, but now, I could care less. Once I stopped trying to please others and started putting my happiness first, I noticed a huge difference in the way I went about life. I guess I finally realized that the time I’d spent focusing on trying to please the people who didn’t like me, ended up distracting me from getting to know the people who had already accepted me. Lesson learned. In life, not everyone’s going to be your biggest advocate, so stop worrying about what they think of you because they obviously have their own insecurities to sort out. Always be yourself, because you’ll be a lot happier for it.

12. Give back.

From a young age, I was always taught the importance of giving back to others. About a year ago, I spent three months in the South Pacific, where I had the pleasure of volunteering alongside some of the greatest groups of people I've ever met. Through my volunteer work, I became more aware of how my actions were transforming the lives around me. Giving back to others is something I’ve always felt strongly about, as there is nothing more gratifying than working to better someone else’s life.

13. Patience is a virtue.

Travel has tested my patience more times than I can count. When you place yourself in the hands of Mother Earth, there is no telling what she has in store for you. Traveling to India this summer definitely tested my patience more times than not. Every time I was approached for a picture or became engulfed in a sea of people, I wanted to scream. It took me a few days to adjust, but once I accepted patience, I noticed myself become less fixated on the things that initially bothered me. No one likes to be rushed, and something that travel has helped me realize is that you can’t control time or the fluidity of life. Sometimes you just have to learn to let go and to surrender yourself to the insanity, because life’s more fun that way. If you don’t understand patience, then you're missing an important value of travel. Patience is necessary to capture some of the best moments in life. And when you go through life at one speed, you tend to miss the parts of life, the detours, which are worth stopping for.

14. There's always a reason to smile.

If you haven’t already picked up on it, I love life and so should you. Even though life in itself is something to smile about, you should always be finding ways to smile more. Whenever I meet new people, I can’t help but smile at the prospect of getting to know complete strangers. For someone who suffers from social awkwardness, smiling is the best solution that I've come up with to cope with this issue. Travel has helped me understand how comforting a smile is to someone you don’t even know. People everywhere have their fair share of problems, so why not try to alleviate a few of their burdens by flashing a smile their way. My travels have shown me how life is better experienced with a massive smile on your face than without one at all. Besides, it’s hard to resist a nice smile.

15. Open-mindedness.

Travel will make you feel all sorts of ways. You’ll experience all sorts of emotions that will remind you of why you began traveling in the first place. Wherever your destination may be, keeping an open-mind about the adventures that await you is important for making the most of your experiences. Travel has helped me realize how limited life is when approached through a narrow mindset. Life is for living and challenging yourself at every chance you get, so try to be positive about discovering what the world has in store for you, because you just might be pleasantly surprised by what you find.

16. Perspective.

It’s true. You never really know how good you have it until you put yourself in someone else’s shoes for a day. Traveling has opened my eyes to both beauty and suffering. It’s not always easy to look reality in the eyes, but it always amazes me at how people with so little are able to live life so fully. Travel puts things in perspective and makes you realize how insignificant your problems really are. Because of travel, I’ve learned to form a greater appreciation for the blessings and opportunities in my life, and it has made all the difference.

17. Try new things.

Stepping outside of your comfort zone isn't always easy. Unfortunately, I learned this the hard way when I decided to go bungee jumping in New Zealand. Bungee jumping was, by far, the most difficult challenge for me to overcome. I’ll confess that, I practically whined like a baby until I finally jumped. But once I took that leap of faith, I was proud of myself for facing my fear. It felt incredible, feeling that rush of adrenaline pump through my veins as I plummeted to the Earth. Sometimes trying new things ends up being more rewarding than we think. There’s always going to be that one thing that we’re afraid of. But that’s why we travel, to give ourselves the opportunity to face our fears. When you open yourself up to trying new things, you become less afraid of the unknown. Trying new things is what travel is all about and what makes travel so unique.

18. Live simply.

I don’t know anyone who has benefited from a cluttered lifestyle. Travel has introduced me to the importance of prioritizing and to the importance of removing the clutter from my life. Society often glamorizes the idea of acquiring more possessions and it can be difficult to focus on simplifying your life when those around you are wanting more. Take it from someone who has sold nearly half of her possessions in the last month, simplifying your life is the best feeling in the world. The more I let go of the things that held me back in life, the more I feel a huge weight being lifted off my shoulders. Because the only thing possessions do is add more stress to our lives. The more we have, the more greedy we become and the more we lose sight of what truly matters in life.

19. Expect more from yourself.

With all of the negativity brewing in the world, it’s difficult, at times, to tell yourself to keep moving forward. With anything you do, you always run the risk of failure, but something that travel has taught me is that, you’ve always got to set the bar high. Giving up is not an option and life will knock you down more times than it will pick you, so its crucial to your well-being that you choose to expect more from yourself. You put yourself at a disadvantage when you limit your possibilities in life. Yes, you’ll fail and get frustrated over disappointment, but that’s why you should always be pushing yourself to take on more challenges. We are our harshest critics, and it doesn’t help that we constantly expect perfection from ourselves. Our insecurities often hinder us from tapping into our full potential and that's why it’s so important not to sell ourselves short. When life comes knocking, and opportunity arises, you don’t just ignore the chance to find out what you’re made of. You accept the challenge. Travel has given me the opportunity to surround myself with extraordinary people. And the more you put people and forming relationships at the center of your life, the happier you’ll find yourself. Because people end up being your biggest supporters when your own confidence is sidelined.

20. Cherish the company of others.

One of the most important things that travel has taught me is that people make the journey worthwhile. For me, it’s not always the destination that enhance my travels, but the people I meet. In just this year alone, I've had the privilege of meeting some of the most magical people I've ever come in contact with. When you’re constantly throwing yourself into new situations, the thought of leaving behind people you just met seems easy. The thing is, it’s not. Parting ways with fellow travelers has become one of, if not, the most difficult aspects of travel for me. To know that I was able to explore the world with complete strangers for a brief moment in my life is such a rewarding experience for me. It helps me appreciate the value of friendship and the importance of surrounding yourself with good company. There’s not an ounce of my soul that doesn’t believe that people are the root of my happiness. With each new person I meet, I notice myself grow more confident. Words cannot describe how thankful I am for my fellow travelers and all that they’ve done to contribute to my growth as a person.