When I think about why I started to travel, it was to learn. The best way I’ve found to learn about the world, and the reason I keep traveling is because of the people I meet. Globetrotters realize that everyone has a story, and those stories light up my brain.
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Here’s why travel is important, and why being a globetrotter is about so much more than posting pictures.:
Whether it be my time teaching kids in France, or my time living with two girls from high school, the best thing about any environment is the attitudes that surround it.
What’s interesting though, is that I find that I have a tough time meeting locals sometimes.
For example, in Germany, it’s so hard to meet Germans. I’ll meet plenty of Turkish people and Iranians but can’t seem to strike up a conversation with a German. I think I know why that is.
It’s not because the locals aren’t incredible. It’s just that I’m in their home.
Hear me out. When we’re at home, we stay at home. We leave home to go to places that we know with people that we already love. When we travel, the people there are the same as us. They have their rituals and aren’t keen to meet people that will be gone the next day.
And that’s okay. It just means that we meet different people than we expect to sometimes. Just like being in a garage doesn’t make you a car, being in a country doesn’t mean that you’ll be enveloped in its culture.
The best part of having friends from around the world is the introspective things that I learn.
Learning is the reason for travel. At the end of the day, a bunch of diverse people can sit and have a conversation together about nothing concerning their own countries’ issues with the others. Globetrotters can sit together and understand, simply from shared experience. The most important thing I’ve learned from traveling is that we are all people. We are all one race: human.
Beyond just getting to know people, I’ve gotten to hear about the amazing things they have done in their lives. I’ve learned from the places they’ve been and the people they associate with at home and abroad. I get such a kick out of meeting other entrepreneurs and learning first hand what business abroad looks like.
