I’ll start off with a quote, because why not. But how do I pick one? So many inspiring things have been said on the subject. So many posters with pictures of beaches hang in office buildings, assuring their audiences that if they work hard enough, it can become reality. At the risk of sounding totally overdone, which this article was already pretty much guaranteed by its title, I’m going to discuss a quote from one of my favorite films and relate it to my recent first trip to another country. The film is "Waking Life" from acclaimed director Richard Linklater and the quote is, “The idea is to remain in a state of constant departure while always arriving.” I had always enjoyed this quote, found it witty and insightful, but had never fully grasped the timeless life-lesson that it carried with it. Perhaps now is a good time to get to the whole traveling bit so I can figure out what it really means.

So, I took my first steps onto an airplane the other week and, subsequently, my first steps in another country; none other than humid ol’ Trinidad. This isn’t a recount of my trip in Trinidad, as great as that would be, this is more of a response to the wise words and banalities that had been spewed my way for the last ten years or so. Everyone would say, “You have to travel. If you ever get the chance it’ll be the best decision of your life. If you don't then that will be the biggest regret of your life,” or, “Immerse yourself in another culture, get out of your comfort zone,” they would say as if they carried around a checklist of proverbial phrases should they encounter someone who hasn't traveled before. My response had always been a fake smile and, when they weren’t looking, an eye roll as my angsty teenage self was in need of something more original. Currently, my response to all of that is, well, they’re right. To quote the great rapper/poet Watsky, “As stereotypes begin with a grain of truth, clichés begin with a boulder.” There is a reason clichés become clichés in the first place.

I had the opportunity to go to Trinidad to visit a friend from school and I could have easily said, “You know, I don't know if I can spend that kind of money right now,” being the poor college kid that I am, but I didn't. I could have let my safe space devour me and say, “I’m more comfortable staying home,” but I didn't. Now, would it have been the biggest regret of my life had I not gone, we can never know, but I’d like to think better off not knowing that. If the trip taught me one looming umbrella of wisdom it was the true meaning of that quote from Waking Life. I, now, take the quote to mean that in life we should never be stagnant. We should always be learning, growing, experiencing all waking moments as the present rather than a byproduct of the past.

In a conversation with my girlfriend I mentioned the phrase “life-changing” and she said, “Was it really life-changing?” To that I found a moment's worth of hesitation, followed by a bold “absolutely.” I could not for the life of me explain why it is life-changing but I think that’s the point. I won’t see it now because I’m still in the present moment, I haven’t departed, still arriving.

If any of you out there have been keeping up with my articles, which I don't suspect any of you are, you might recall my last one which was a letter from my past self to my present self. In that letter that I wrote over two years go I told myself that I had to go somewhere, I had to travel, get out of the country, experience something outside of my bubble. He (my 17 year old self) would be proud to see where I am now. It’s in that phenomenon that I begin to see the true nature of life-changing events, this goes for travel as well as any other. You don't have to know that it’s happening, and it’s only when you look backward that you can see how far you've come. When I begin to arrive, and only then, I will be able to understand the change that has occurred since my departure, physically and metaphorically speaking.