The first time I travelled to a new country without my parents was when I was 16. As soon as I walked out of the doors of the airport in El Salvador, I was greeted by the sweltering humidity and a wild looking man with a huge grin on his face. Even though I had never met him, I knew immediately this was the founder of the organization that my classmates and I would be working with for the next week on my high school immersion trip. Then came my first lesson in El Salvador: learning to put your trust in people you don’t know. We loaded all our bags into this dirty, bearded man’s truck, hopped into the 14-seater van and headed on our way to the village we would live in for 10 days. It was there that I first discovered that people around the world live drastically different lives than my own.
When I stepped off of the plane in Paris on the first day of my four-month study abroad trip, I felt that same awestruck feeling of stepping into an entirely different way of life. I fell back in love with that feeling every time I set foot in a new country or city over those four months. Each time I shifted my worldview to consider another way of living life, I felt happier, more sure of myself. And that’s when everything changed.
Being a teacher was my calling. It still is the surest thing about myself that I know. But my vision for the way my life was going to play out was narrow--I was going to get a job teaching Kindergarten in California, and I was going to do that the rest of my life. That terrified me. I couldn’t wrap my head around staying in one place and doing one thing for so many years. And then I realized that I don’t have to.
While I was studying in Florence, Italy, I volunteered at an elementary school. As soon as I walked into the classroom, I was shocked to find that even though I was in a brand new country and no one in the room spoke the same language as me… I felt right at home. The kids still pulled each other’s hair and joked around as any elementary school child would. That night I was on my computer for hours reading everything I could about teaching English abroad. The idea of traveling all around the world for the next decade was the most enticing and terrifying prospect to ever pop into my head, but somehow I knew that this was right for me.
A life of travel isn’t right for everyone. But here are a few key factors that I believe make someone ready to take the world by storm.
1. I’m not afraid to be alone. When I was in Italy, some of my favorite days were spent wandering around Florence by myself. I learned to enjoy company when people are around me, but to embrace time spent with just me, myself, and I. The ability to be completely independent, to make decisions completely on your own, and be comfortable alone with your own thoughts makes it possible to go anywhere.
2. I value kinship. Kinship is different than friendship, and the ability to draw happiness from simple, everyday encounters with other people is such an important quality to have when traveling. I find joy in making conversation in a new language with the person sitting behind me on a bus, the person holding the door open for me or taking my order at the café. Seeing the beauty in these simple interactions makes being alone in a brand new city a little less scary, and much less lonely.
3. I am resilient. Travel brings many challenges. Nothing could have prepared me for the enormous cockroach on my wall in the middle of the night in El Salvador, for faulty directions or missed flights in Europe, and everything else that attempts to rattle me in my adventures. I am hopelessly optimistic and stop at nothing to achieve what I set out to do, an attitude that makes any challenge possible to overcome.
4. I believe that people are inherently good. The world is a scary place right now. It is easy to believe that the safest place to stay is your own home and venturing anywhere outside your comfort zone will likely get you shot or kidnapped or robbed. Even though there are so many things wrong with the world we live in… I choose to give people the benefit of the doubt, and to assume that most people aren’t out to get me. I uphold this attitude with a grain of salt, however. You still have to acknowledge that bad things do happen. You have to be wary and pay attention without giving up your faith in the goodness of people. It might sound impossible, but I’ve found it’s the only way I can travel the world and not be downtrodden by all the terrible things that happen. And it also keeps me open to meeting all the good people out there.
Whether you think you have what it takes to travel around the world or want to stay right where you are, an openness to the world around you is the key to never feeling bored or stuck in a rut. With so many people to meet and opportunities to change and grow, why limit yourself? The most important thing I have learned in my ever-changing life goals and dreams is to never sell yourself short. We make our own rules in life, not the other way around. Be who you want to be, go wherever you want to go, dream whatever you want dream. It’s yours.
