I grew up in a family that stressed the importance of exposure to the outside world. Whether it was to meet family members on my mother’s side who had moved back to their home country of Trinidad, or it was to see where the Wright brothers flew the first successful plane, travel played a huge part in my education as a member of society. Unfortunately, I know all too many people who are adamant against travel, or who have never been given the opportunity.
In elementary and middle school, most of my classmates had been to other states, and some had even been abroad for vacations, educational or cultural trips, and some just for the fun of it. That was normal to me, I was a part of that population. When I transferred to a neighborhood public school, a good 60 percent of the people I met, given that they were born in America, had never been outside of Pennsylvania, at least half of those people had never been outside of Philadelphia, and about a quarter of those people had never been to a museum. As someone who has lived in both Washington D.C. and Philadelphia, I find that appalling. Consequently, most of these students were in lower level classes discussing social studies, and had a very limited view of the world and country around them. There is a clear correlation between how much a student travels, and what they understand of the rest of the world.
There are three main reasons to travel, in my opinion, with several subcategories of course. Exposure to the customs of another place, acknowledgement of overlapping cultures and history, and for the sake of networking and business. While travel will always aid all three of these reasons, some trips are better for one reason than an other. I will detail some of my own experiences with you as to why each of these incentives will be very beneficial to you, if you decide to travel.
1. Culture
The summer following my Junior year in high school, I had the opportunity to go “on tour” with my choir to Italy. We spent a week there, singing across northern Italy, and taking in all the incredible culture and history (and food, obviously). Never had I been in such a leisurely place; the entire economy is based around having time to relax, eat, and spend time with family, and it showed. The locals were all very kind and happy, not only to other locals, but to tourists as well. It was very incredible spending time in a place that highly values the humanity of its citizens.
Along with it being an incredibly amicable country, it has an incredible history. Our first concert was across the street from our first hotel, at Basilica di Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, which was incredible. The woman giving us the tour casually mentioned that it had been built in the 6th century, as if that was totally normal. Contrary to local belief, it is; America is such a new country that it has yet to have ancient buildings and structures of its own, much like the Basilica. While I had seen several incredible churches and cathedrals across America, nothing at home could compare to walking into a structure several times older than your home country. We toured and performed in several places, including Basilica di San Marco in Venice. Nothing comes close to experiencing firsthand another culture in person; it changes people.
2. Exposure
Every three to four years, my church offers high school kids the opportunity to spend a week on a Native American reservation in south-western South Dakota. I took up this opportunity my during the summer following my freshman year in high school. While we made the typical tourist stops, Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, The Badlands, the trip was mostly to compare our faith with that of Native Americans, and to allow other traditions influence over how we developed our personal spirituality, being that spirituality is developed rather than dictated.
Taking the time to disconnect from the world to reflect on my life and how I approached it came at the best time possible Freshman year is hard for many people, and was particularly for me; I was leaving the entire educational structure I had been raised in, transferring to a neighborhood public school, and church was my one constant. I needed something like this right then, and my situation made me appreciate it more than under normal circumstances.
Being that we were in rural South Dakota, we had hundreds of miles of raw, unspoiled nature at our disposal. We also managed to plan our trip during the Lakota tradition of Sundance, an incredible, week long holiday dedicated to recognizing the connection between humans and the earth which sustains us. That week, I learned more about how I view the world in comparison to people of another tradition than ever before, and it was enlightening. There is an entire history of faiths that I know nothing, or next to it, about, and this trip was my first step towards correcting that. Becoming aware of your surroundings is the first step to accepting the traditions of others, which will, overall, lead to a more accepting, open, and informed society as a whole.
3. Work
While everyone occasionally needs a vacation from work, sometimes travel is a part of the job. During my junior year of high school, I had the opportunity to work on a professional Broadway Backer’s Audition, which is the process of pitching and performing the concept of a musical to Broadway and off Broadway investors to receive funding to make it real. While I thought it was going to be a cute little production with 50-something kids and a couple of adults, I later found out that the man playing the lead role was Norm Lewis. Many Broadway fanatics know him as the first African American person to play the Phantom in the Broadway production of "Phantom of the Opera," much of the rest of the country knows him as Olivia’s boyfriend during the first season of the ABC TV show "Scandal." He alone took this from a choir trip, to a professional encounter for me, making me realize that this was a huge deal (and a great resume builder).
It was incredible getting to work with him, along with 11 other professional Broadway professionals, getting to know them, and building strong professional relationships with people who did this for a living, which was a goal of mine at the time. I used that opportunity to throw my name in the hat as someone who could be professional enough to be invited on excursions, such as this one, in the future. Sure enough, within a couple months, I was invited to be a part of another session in New York, later, once again to be in a recording demo, and even later for another production. While I had to be available to travel on a moment’s notice for these events, it showed how dedicated I was to making this happen; I used travel to my own advantage.
While traveling outside of the country or sometimes state can be difficult for many, if provided the opportunity, take it. The world grows an inch smaller every day, but it is still massive and unexplored until you step out the door. If you are to take anything from my experiences, I hope it is that travel will change one’s life, and will open more doors for you than you can imagine.
