Leaving the country you were born in isn't something everyone gets to experience. It can be expensive, time consuming, and overall just a difficult process to put together a trip to another country, especially one across an ocean. But taking part in that experience is something everyone should get to do at least once in their lives.

I travelled out of the country for the first time when I was seven years old. I went to Australia to visit family. It was an amazing experience that I wouldn't trade for the world, but I don't remember most of that trip as it took place 11 years ago. What I do know, though, is that it was such an amazing experience that I would love to do it again.

Realizing that this craving to travel still needed to be fulfilled, I embarked on a trip to Italy that changed my life for the better forever. I got to see parts of the world I had never seen before. I got to experience so much of the culture, from how different their breakfasts are to the streets that were filled with colors and laughter and love surrounding you in every direction. Living in a small suburban town in America, you rarely ever get to experience something like that.

Traveling truly does heal the soul. It allows us as human beings to see other parts of the world that we may have never gotten to explore, and gain new life experiences outside of the classroom. It allows us, or it allowed me at least, to see that I am a small piece of what makes up this world and my problems in life are so small in the big picture.

We do learn a lot in school. We spend 12 years sitting in a classroom with countless teachers who are there to provide us with an education to help us succeed in the “real world,” but without seeing the world, one can never fully experience life. By this I mean that we need to be able to experience things in order to better our understanding of life. We need to meet new people and see new things so we can look back and say that we really lived our lives and didn't just let time pass us by.

So traveling, in my opinion, is a necessity. There is so much out there for us to see and life's too short to not try and gain as many experiences as possible. There are so many ways to go and travel when you're on a budget. Believe me, I know how expensive it can be. But there are options for people who crave this adventure and you, too, can go and explore the world one step at a time.