I just recently had the opportunity to travel to the Dominican Republic (as in, I literally just left) and I got to thinking about how little I’ve actually traveled in my life. I’m almost 20 years old and that was the first time I had left the country. It was my first experience with international travel and everything that comes with it. It was my first time being (semi) immersed in a culture so different from my own. It made me think about how much I would be missing out on if I didn’t take every opportunity I had to experience different cultures. I feel like we spend so much time wrapped up in our own lives that we don’t really take the time to see what it’s like in other parts of the world.
From the minute I stepped out of the airport, I could just feel how different it was. The way people dress, the cars people drive, the way traffic moves. The way people look at you is even different. Especially men. It is very normal for a man to openly check a woman out and no one really thinks anything of it. You can’t really walk down the street without having someone stare you down and yell something about your appearance. Coming from a place where that’s a little strange and frowned upon by most women, I didn’t know how to react to it. It’s just not something I am used to.
To be honest, even just the language barrier was interesting enough. I know a little Spanish, enough to at least greet someone, but trying to have a conversation with someone who doesn’t speak the language you speak was a very interesting and eye opening experience. And even though many of the people in the Dominican Republic speak little English, they still knew more English than I do Spanish. I find it interesting that in most other countries, it is absolutely required that kids learn English in school from when they start to when they graduate. For us in the United States, we are really only required to take one or two foreign language classes just to fulfill a credit requirement. It is not expected that those who live in the United States learn a second language in schools. That doesn’t quite seem fair to me.
Traveling to the Dominican Republic and spending time in a new place just made me want to travel the world even more. One of my goals is to become fluent in Spanish and I would love to travel to many different Spanish-speaking countries and see how different the cultures and the accents are. I want to travel to Spain, and Cuba, and Mexico. I would also love to visit France, Italy, England, Ireland, Brazil, anywhere in Africa, China, India; basically just the whole world!
After seeing the first stamps I’ve ever had on my passport, I’ve now made it my goal to fill those pages up with stamps from places all across the globe. I think I would be doing myself an injustice if I didn’t take every chance I could to see what else this world has to offer. And I think anyone who has the chance to travel and decides not to is wasting a beautiful opportunity to broaden their horizons and truly get the most out of life.
