" Traveling is the only thing that you can buy that makes you richer." This quote perfectly explains how experiencing different places around the world provides a reward more priceless than anything you will find on the shelf of a fancy store. While school teaches you the fundamental elements of making your way around, like how to read and write, nothing can compare to being thrown into a real life situation and figuring things out for yourself. Traveling provides a unique and often once in a lifetime opportunity to view all of the beautiful pictures and stories you read about in books with a new set of eyes. The results are lessons that can change the way you live your life when you return home.
Being in a new place with a ticking return date hanging over your shoulder teaches you to truly live in the moment. There is no time to be bored when you are in a beautiful country with endless amounts of things you have never seen and too many people you haven't met yet. Traveling teaches you that dining in a restaurant that serves better wine than it does free wifi is always the way to go when every panorama you've been admiring through your phone screen is finally right in front of you.
Traveling also makes you less high-maintenance than you ever thought possible. Before, you might identify as someone who is accustomed to the luxury of trying on fourteen outfits before driving to meet up with friends at a favorite spot. One flight and hundreds of miles late, you are transformed into someone who can live out of a suitcase for months and walks unfamiliar streets to meet and dine with new people at spots that print the menus in a language you can barely understand. It teaches you that you don't need a lot of temporary possessions with you to make memories that will last a lifetime, and that there is no price on a plane ticket that can outweigh any adventure.
While learning about a different culture opens your mind up to living differently, it also makes you proud of where you came from. It makes you excited to tell people about where you are from and what life is like half a world away. You begin to appreciate the little luxuries that other countries may not offer, whether it be your favorite local meal at a restaurant or unlimited amounts of air-conditioning wherever you go.
When you travel, you are forced to do the things you always wanted to do, but maybe never thought you could. You will try strange new foods that are local delicacies. You will buy new clothes with the charm of where you are staying. You will want to learn new languages. You will breathe fresh new air. You will read and learn about different cultures. You will go to local bars and dance like a fool to music you can't understand. You will take risks you thought you never could. You will discover new places on hidden streets. You will talk to strangers and meet people who excite you. You will see things that you will never forget. You will think about moving. You will achieve the answer to an important life question. You will daydream and become wanderlust for your next trip. And so much more. Traveling inspires you to truly make the most out of every priceless moment in your life as if it is the last drop of a glass of Tuscan wine.
