Traveling the world has become an increasingly popular desire among our generation. Not only to the landmark locations like London and Paris, but to more obscure destinations, as well.

More and more people are developing a desire to live in the culture and experience life like the natives. As a result, people are learning more about the injustices going on around the world, or learning to perceive issues in their own country from a new perspective.

I think this is where the “I want to save the world” notion comes from that seems to be so prevalent among Millennials, and I think that is absolutely wonderful. However, I don’t always think we use our travel experience to its full advantage when we encounter the things we wish to change.

The prevalence of the Internet and social media in our day-to-day lives mean we are almost always aware of the many issues facing not only our homes, but the rest of the world as well. What I see in my generation is a desire to affect change and lessen the severity of those issues, and yet I see so many people do little about them other than retweet an article or complain about the illogical misinformation posted by so many people in our parents’ generation.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that I am not guilty of this, because I definitely am. I just do not understand why we are so outspoken about so many things, and yet so passive when it comes to actually changing them. We encounter the grand display of ignorance that is so known to our society every day, and we have the resources to counter them, and yet we so rarely use them. I have talked to people who have traveled to every corner of the earth and when I ask them about it they say little more than something along the lines of “Oh I had a great time there” or “No, I definitely would not recommend it.” That just seems like a waste to me.

A few days ago, I was sitting in the kitchen with a group of other international students enjoying a meal and conversation. At one point in the evening, one of my Chilean friends asked us a simple question: “Do you ever find yourself lying in bed at night and thinking how incredible it is that only a few days ago you were lying in your own bed at home, on the other side of the world?”

Simple, right? But it sparked a conversation that really resonated with me and is still pulling at me days later. The conversation developed into discussing the sacrifices that each of us has made to get here and how that will make this experience so much greater on many different levels. One of the other students brought up the fact that in most traditions it would be expected for the younger members of a village to go out beyond their home to explore and return to share the knowledge they have gained with their elders.

I think that still rings true today. We are young, we have time and opportunity to travel, see the world, experience other cultures and learn new things. We have the ability to take that knowledge and share it with those who are lacking.

So here is my advice to you: Go. Explore. Live. Learn. Return and share everything that you have learned and experienced during your time abroad. Make people so envious of the adventures that they go out and create their own so that they may get a glimpse of what has taught and changed you so much. Only then will you begin to see a change in the world.