When you're young everyone tells you one of the most important things you can do in life is to travel. It helps you to grow as a person, and I can attest to that. Outside of getting to see some amazing places traveling allows you to begin learning about new and different cultures, while making great memories that will last a lifetime. The summer before my junior year of college, my best friend moved to Hawaii. While the move was hard for me to handle, I knew that I would always have her in my life, and that I would always have somewhere to stay if I ever visited her. That fall, I bought a ticket to fly out to Hawaii from Los Angeles and the adventure of a lifetime began. Not only did I fly into Hawaii and spend my spring break there, but I was able to drive across the country from Pennsylvania with my best friend, and some of her friends who I grew to become close with myself over those two weeks. I would not change anything about my traveling experience, including the things that I learned along the way. So here are five reasons why I believe you should travel at least once while you are young.

1. Learning about different cultures.

It might be obvious that traveling would naturally teach you about different lifestyles and cultures. But that is really the only way to do it. You will never learn more, or truly understand, another culture until you've been completely immersed in it and experienced it for yourself. Until that happens, what everyone else has told you is only their experience and understanding. Not yours.

2. Learning more about traveling.

Those two weeks were the first two that I had ever traveled anywhere on my own and without my parents. My flight home from Hawaii, was the only the second flight I had taken since I was a child, and it was the first time I had ever flown completely by myself. While it was scary, it also allowed me to learn a lot about the ins and outs of airports, and how to get around the country.

3. Meeting new people.

Another obvious, but very true point. The people that I met while visiting my best friend, I still stay connected to today. There is a bond that you make with people after sitting in a car nonstop with them for nearly a week straight. While I don't necessarily talk to them or hear from them everyday, it always brings a smile to my face when I get a random text, or I see a post of their's on Instagram and see how they are doing.

4. Making memories and experiencing things you never could anywhere else.

There really are some places that have opportunities that you cannot experience anywhere else. There will never be the same people, or the same circumstances, no matter where you go. Some of my favorite memories while in Hawaii were getting tours from some of the locals that my best friend had become close with. To get to see and hear the history of a place that someone actually grew up in, and hear their understanding of it is just something that can't be replicated.

5. Learning about yourself.

It might sound cheesy and a tad bit overrated, but you truly do learn a lot about yourself when you travel. You're suddenly put in a place, where all of your comforts aren't around you, and you have to have faith and trust yourself in a way that you might not normally when you're in your comfort zone. One of the most unnerving parts about my trip was my flight getting cancelled and pushed back because of a major snow storm back home. For me, trusting in a situation where there is no clear direction is difficult, and I learned a lot about my own strength sitting in a strange airport by myself waiting to hear when my flight would come in and getting off at my layover having no idea where to catch my connecting flight.

Traveling truly did allow me to grow as a person, and I was able to learn more about myself and my capabilities than I ever thought I could. While there are a million other reasons to travel, these are my top five, and I hope that you take them with you as you look to book your next journey.