If you were like me as a kid, you never thought about travel. Sure, I wanted to get out of the States just so I could say so, but I never thought of gaining much from the experiences I would have while out of the country.
As of right now, I've been out of the country twice. Once to Aruba on a fourteen-day vacation with my best friend, and once to Italy as part of a student exchange program. Though I was too young to really appreciate my experience in Aruba, my trip to Italy with a great group of classmates and teacher (Ciao Signora!) changed my life.
In the chaos of our own lives, it can be hard to clear ourselves of that tunnel vision and look to see what others are doing. I knew there would be culture shock when I went to Italy, but I didn't know it would change my life and how I see the world.
While the unified country itself is a little younger than most, it's history is incredibly rich and deep. While my hometown recently celebrated only it's 100th birthday, the town I stayed in, Treviso, was thousands of years old, going back to 89 BCE. While there, I walked through cobblestone streets worn out by the feet of a hundred generations and passed pale buildings that have stood witness to millennia of history ticking by like minutes on a clock. This different atmosphere invited me to look deeper into cultures outside my own, to understand them by walking a mile in their shoes.
Even the little things about this culture shock were eye-opening: the use of a bidet, the popularity of bicycles, the drinking of fizzy water. The difficulty of purchasing things like aluminum foil. All of these contributed to my fascination with the Italian lifestyle and culture and the ways in which it differs from my own.
Without this experience abroad in Italy, I never would have caught the travel bug. I now have a thirst for traveling the world, to different continents and countries and cultures. India, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Cambodia, Scotland, Brazil, Croatia. And so many more. The more I travel, the more I will learn about the world around me.
Suddenly, after traveling, my vision wasn't so tunneled. I started thinking more often during my daily life about the Venetian culture I saw in Italy. My mind opened up to include those living in different conditions than my own, and all I've wanted to do since was continue to travel and experience everything the world and all its people have to offer.
Without travel, how are we to understand those who are different from us? How can we truly understand all this life may entail without seeing it in its different forms? It's easy to look at a picture and hand out quick judgment about a different person or place, but while a picture says a thousand words, an experience says them all. So see the world. Travel across its waters and deserts and forests to the places unknown to you. Go to its suburbs and cities and farms and seek out someone who looks at life through a different lens. It may just change your life.
