Traveling is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself. It is a way to experience new things that you would not have a chance on experiencing at home. It teaches you a new perspective on life and how to live it.
In America people believe that success means having many things going on at once, but that kind of busy-ness in life seems to overtake until you get absolutely exhausted.
In Europe, Mexico and other places in the world, the busy-ness slows down. People seem to grasp better that life needs to have a break. This is demonstrated by what is known in Mexico, Spain or other Spanish countries as the siesta. A siesta is an afternoon nap that everyone takes usually during the hottest part of the day-high noon. As a college student, I can say that there are many days where I wish there was a mandatory siesta. To be authentic I took some siestas myself whenever I had the chance.
In Europe they also slow things down a bit. If you go to a restaurant in Europe, the servers will take their sweet time serving you. Many Europeans will stay at a restaurant for two to three hours before they leave. This can be very annoying to American tourists, but it is a good lesson to learn how to enjoy the little things in life.
Other than gaining some knowledge on culture, traveling also gives you a sense of adventure.Traveling allows you to go biking in Canada, go snorkeling in the Bahamas, go biking in the mountains, go paragliding in Mexico and go skiing in New Mexico. These are just some of the things you can experience while traveling.
There is also so much you can learn from traveling not only how other people live, but the history of the world around you. I personally love learning about history. Somehow reading about an event in a history book is not as great as experiencing it for yourself. For example, there is a big difference between reading about a shipwreck in the Bahamas, and going to the Bahama's to snorkel around that shipwreck. There are so many amazing opportunities just like that around the world.
Another reason people should travel is because it gives you the chance to escape. Sometimes the stress of ordinary life just takes a toll. Everyone needs a little vacation, so why not go someplace new? There are so many places in the world that are very accessible to us now. We can just hop on a plane and go. While you are in college it is a perfect time to travel and create adventures. College is a time to get ahold of the opportunities presented and take them.
There is so much in your life to get the perfect job or the perfect house, but there is not always opportunities to travel. In Robert Louis Stevenson's words, “I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move.”
