I’m not saying travel is bad, but the way people romanticize it is getting out of hand. Everyone acts like hopping on a plane to another country automatically makes you more “cultured” or “open-minded.’
You don’t magically become more self-aware because you walked through a market in another country or ate food from there. It is basically just a way to escape your actual life for a bit with a big price tag
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Travelling makes you see the negative aspects of a foreign country. Wish more people knew this
You’d understand if you travelled more.
I’ve learned a bit from my travels, and have met interesting people.. Escape or not I’d argue worth it
If one is a dumb asshole at home, traveling won’t make you better.
Traveling gives you perspective.
I see a lot of truth in that. I travelled and worked abroad for 20 years, went right round the world, including circumnavigating it fully over the course of a year or so, lived and worked in more countries than most people even visit on holiday, including a few that don’t even issue tourist visas, and yea, I think ultimately it was escapism. It doesn’t work either, in the long term. I’ve been settled back home for over 5 years now and my personal problems seem worse than ever.
And also, this insistence about travelling always making you more openminded isn’t true, at least in my case. When you experience prejudice/racism/bigotry simply based on your skin colour/religion/nationality, it can make you leery of certain groups of people, which I wasn’t before. I think I was actually less prone to prejudice and xenophobia when I hadn’t experienced it in spades myself.
Travelling is definitely educational, as firsthand experience will always beat what the internet can tell you, but that’s not always going to make you more enlightened.
It really depends on how you travel. If you’re really exploring, talking to people, trying new things, and getting stuck in to the place where you’re going, then it absolutely can open your mind.
If you’re sitting by a pool, then not so much.
It’s definitely given me experiences and knowledge that I wouldn’t have gotten without it. I live my life by the premise of “would this make a cool story to tell my kids one day” and it generally leads to a good time
There’s different types of traveling. Obviously getting off a cruise ship for 6 hours in one of those weird cruise towns, or going straight to a resort and not leaving the whole trip except for little pre planned excursions isn’t enlightening (but can still be fun). But actually spending some time in a foreign country, meeting the people, exploring and getting a feel for the culture absolutely expands your mind and gives you new perspective. Plus it can show you all the ways your home country is lacking, and it can also show you all the ways you’re fortunate to live where you do
Visiting Hawaii was pretty enlightening for me. Maybe because I stayed with my best friend who is native Hawaiian. It was a crash course on the impacts of colonialism.
Still more cost effective than therapy
It’s just fun
Well I travel because its fun. It lets me try different food, see different views, do activities I normally can’t/don’t do, buy stuff I cant buy back home. Of course its escapism, but isnt that almost every fun thing we do?
Some of the dumbest least interesting people I have ever met are also the most well traveled.
What you get out of it is entirely up to you.
The majority of the women I meet in dating strongly believe that travel is their identity and personality. As well as being a “foodie”. It’s taken a Herculean effort to look engaged.
If you haven’t, check the 1990 Arnold movie Total Recall, it’s kind of about your thought here.
Some people act like they are backpacking through these countries and having an Anthony Bourdain style experience being taken in by the locals and really getting an intimate look into their lifestyle… really they are staying at fancy resorts the locals could never afford or in tourist traps.
Traveling is awesome for many reasons. But people who act like them staying at the 5 star pool resort in the 3rd world country magically makes them better people are fooling themselves.
I think living somewhere for a bit can be enlightening, which is different.
I agree with you don’t become magically more self aware. Having lived in another country for 6 months definitely changed my perspective. Traveling to another country for two weeks where we were going to where the locals went changed my perspective. It requires interacting with the people, not just going to tourist traps. They are designed to be friendly and accommodating to your own culture.
Hopping on a plane to the capital city, eating the food and wandering a market isn’t enlightening.
Talking to people, exploring a place’s history, learning about the people, watching how they live and interact, and learning a few basic phrases such as hello, goodbye, how are you, good, please, thank you, and good bye, that’s enlightening.
I would argue that one is the definition of travel according to the letter, the other according to the spirit.
I agree with you. Travelling through some 3rd world nation cosplaying poor with people who actually are poor and would give their right arm to travel back with you doesn’t seem particularly enlightening to me. I’ve never met anyone return from their travels with any additional discernible skills, aside from being about to bore everyone to death with stories about how enlightened they are.
If I travel it literally is for the escapism! Get me into a plush resort with sandy beaches and cocktails with umbrellas any day of the week. And take my money while you’re at it!
From what I can tell, most of what people seem to love about travelling is that they can pretend to be much wealthier than they are. They often stay in a hotel with a lot of amenities where there are people who will clean up after you. They tend to go to restaurants for pretty much every meal and eat foods they otherwise wouldn’t. They like to go shopping and spend a lot of money on souvenirs or other items they really don’t need.
After you factor it all in, people are spending far more than they regularly would during a regular week.
While I do know people who have travelled in a way that would be enlightening, most people’s non-business travel is not something I think really broadens horizons.
All my travel was paid for by the military. And most of my port calls were not resort towns.
I’ve touched the ruins of Petra. Walked the streets of Pompeii. Drank a warm Coca Cola with a kid in Eritrea. I got drunk after a soccer game with the crew of a Russian Navy ship in Kamchatka.
I learned some things.
Travel isn’t going to change you from dumb caveman to enlightened but you will gain from it if you have the right mindset.
A lot of travel youtubers make travel out to be more than what it is and they kinda treat foreign citizens like zoo animals
It’s more about what you do when you travel & where you go. Traveling allows you to see different perspectives on different cultures and history around the world.
I think westerns don’t realise how much propaganda and rewriting there is in our media, museums etc.
it’s a lot clearer once you leave the bubble.
Ofc if you’re just travelling and partying in another country then I agree
100% agree. I traveled a lot when I was younger and I always get weird looks when I say I don’t care for it.
Like wow you’re doing things you normally do when on vacation but somewhere else. You get to see cool architecture or scenery that you get to look at in awe for about 10 minutes and snap a photo you’ll never look at again. Maybe 5% of people who travel are actually immersing themselves in the culture and going to places that aren’t tourist traps.
When people say traveling is their hobby I think it really just means theyre a boring person and don’t want to admit their only hobby is watching Netflix.
Yeah I wish I knew this before
Traveling invigorates your mind. There is a big world out there …go and see it.
Travelling sounds to me like it must be enlightening and a very interesting life experience.
Unfortunately, hearing about it is a profoundly dull and seemingly endless experience.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”
-Mark Twain
Seeing how people in other countries live their lives certainly would make the majority of people more aware. Maybe not if you travel from America to London or something because they’re basically the same, but if you go to countries with vastly different cultures people will absolutely grow and be more self aware as they learn more about the world.
I feel like every time I travel somewhere new I learn something about the culture I end up taking back home with me. It doesn’t always completely change how I live, of course, but it does make me think about things differently.
It is good for perspective (and fun stuff), but that is about it. It won’t make you any less of a douche if you are a douche at home.
Everything you said; Plus one flight from NY to London puts the same amount of green house gas in the atmosphere, as someone living in Ghana produces in a year. The outsized impact luxury travel has on Climate Change is what bothers me most
Have my upvote!
Agreed. Can’t we just do things for fun or as a hobby why does everything need to be “productive’ in some way. You went to France because you wanted to have fun, what’s wrong with that?
Travel Solo….
Like Kramer said, why go to the symphony when you can just pop a pill?
Most people take their baggage with them. I always leave mine at home.
the title of your post is just perfect
It can make you more enlightened, but only if you engage it.
If you’re just staying at hotels/resort and hit up only the tourist spots with a guide, maybe then yea. No growth. But just seeing how other people live, even passively, can be a huge eye opener. There’s reason why people who never left their hometown tend to be closed minded. It’s hard to imagine how things could be different when you’ve never seen it IRL. This also goes for people living in cities but only in a small enclave of like minded (and often like-incomed) people.
For example, an American from the suburbs who travel to Europe and experience the joy of efficient and effective transit might come home and find themselves more inclined to support transit at home. Going to China and seeing how actual Chinese people live will certainly affect what the word “Chinese” conjures up as a knee-jerk reaction.
That’s to say, traveling is a resource like any other. There’s potential for benefit, but it’s up to you to engage and realize that benefit.
I will say though, in my experience there’s very clear trend in people’s openness and maturity that correlates with not necessarily traveling per say, but having seen more aspects of life than their own. Which could mean moving, volunteering, etc.
This isn’t an unpopular opinion. Every lame pedantic person I know regurgitates it all the time
I agree
I have travelled a lot, visited a lot of countries and for the most part… I don’t feel more enlightened or open minded. I just have memories of a cool place I have visited like Japan or Laos or memories of a shithole like Vietnam.
I enjoyed my time in those places. I loved Japan and went back a few times, but it didn’t change me as a person at all.
Important to note that, depending on where you live, even short travel can be just as enlightening as long travel.
In the mid-atlantic, you drive a few hours in any given direction and end up some place to give you a lot of fresh perspective. You don’t have to fly 3000 to do it.
People now don’t travel for themselves they travel for the instagram stories they can post for others.
Hell, drugs are a kind of expensive escapism, too. And some sources claim they occasionally provide pathways to creative expression, companionship, and personal revelation. I think a balanced take on both drugs and travel is that both offer a chance to reset, whether the participant wants to keep it as simple as temporarily getting out of a daily grind or turn it into a super immersive experience that changes how they think and live moving forward. But neither automatically grants you enlightenment, because there are no shortcuts to wisdom
Hard agree!
I agree it doesn’t magically change anything, but to be fair nothing magically changes people. It’s just that travel can expose you to differences (if you choose to do that kind of travel and choose to absorb it) and that can in turn help you see different perspectives.
This dumb American visiting Europe made me realize how fucking stupid tipping is. So there’s that.
I’ve lived and traveled all over the world, and I would say that while I was already pretty open minded to start, traveling definitely helped given that I chased trips that forced me to learn.
Am I a “better” person for my travel? Probably not. But I certainly learned new cuisines, gained new ideas, and learned new ways of being.
But that was a deliberate and purposeful thing on my part. And yes, plenty of people can go to Japan and come back the exact same. But I think traveling CAN be pretty cool and helpful in growing one’s ideas about the world.
It absolutely depends on how you travel, where you travel to, and how open you are to the different experiences. A lot of it requires a degree of curiosity and a bit of adventure–to be willing to go off the beaten track wondering what is outside the narrow little well defined tourist path most people follow.
But then, I would argue that even this does not make you ‘more cultured.’ Wiser, perhaps. It can give you more perspective: my time in an Indian village where poverty (even by Indian standards) was the norm was both enlightening and heart breaking.
But it cannot make you more “cultured”; to me, “cultured” is just a bit of fluff offered by snobbish assholes. And it doesn’t make you “open-minded”; either you go in open-minded and experience something new, or you go in an asshole and come out an assole.
For me, travel is worth the cost because I enjoy the experiences and I enjoy getting out of my comfort zone seeing how other people live. But aside from the experiences, travel has not changed me one fucking bit. I was a curious person going in; I come out a curious person with a few of my curiosity itches scratched. Nothing more.
You are right, it isn’t magical,you don’t suddenly become cultured or enlightened. But it’s definitely a very good way to broaden your perspective.
If you are going to sit by a pool in the sun, eating the same food you eat st home, talking to people from the same place, yeah, you probably aren’t going to have many encounters that change your perspective. I had a holiday in Crete that was mostly just sitting around the pool or on the beach drinking the complimentary cocktails. It was nice, but the moments I remember are jumping off the boat into the bluest sea I’ve ever seen and seeing the ruin of Knossos. They were fantastic moments.
More recently I went to Japan and saw a country that was so beautiful, and nature and modern life running side by side, I ordered food in another language at a street stall from the coolest man in the world, I found a temple that was stunningly beautiful in the middle of a market place.
Those things definitely had a huge impact on me and the way I view things, and myself.
I think seeing new things and getting outside of your comfort zone are very important for growth and “enlightenment”. Travel is probably the most effective ways to do those things. Of course, you need to have the desire to engage with them for it to impact you.
I find it gives perspective if you’re open to it.
I agree. The way some people talk about their travels all the time can be weird to me. And if you haven’t really gone anywhere, it’s almost like they poo-poo you lol?
I have only traveled to like 4 countries outside of the US and I can honestly say that I don’t feel like I am missing much? Every culture has their own food places and events in the US. Immigrants actually bring the best of their worlds to us.
Plus, since I have never hired guides of any kind when I went to those countries, I feel like I have gotten way more cultural information, across the board, through documentaries on Netflix and such. All of the more unknown, “off the grid from tourist places” too.
I get what you’re saying but genuinely every time I go away from my home city, I learn something new about an area or culture. I would say that DOES change my perspective. It makes you either greatful for what you have, or you realise there’s a whole other world of opportunities out there.
Idk traveling definitely has made me more cultured lol I literally am from a small city in the Midwest. Actually coming to a bigger city has me fluent in certain dynamics that aren’t present in my city. In addition to that, I learn so much everything outside of me becomes a classroom but I AM a person who seeks knowledge no matter where I am.
I went to Tokyo for 10 days and while it didnt “change my life” it did open my mind to thoughts, feelings, and ideas Id never experienced before. It did make me open-minded, it did help me become more aware of those around me and how my actions affect others in life. It motivated me to do better and to be better. It made me realize America is trash, honestly. Ultimately it made me realize i want to leave a net positive on this planet and I became much more mindful of my own actions. Id love to go back someday as I know Tokyo is but a fraction of life in Japan.
exactly. I travel for a living and you’d be shocked how many of my coworkers land in germany and immediately start searching for a mcdonalds or chipolte.
I get ya some people on social media travel a lot and act like they have gone through some sort of spiritual experience that they are better off from. Then they proceed to make a video about how everyone should travel like some life changing enlightening experience. I mean sure when I go to other countries I get more of an appreciation for what we have where I live and I have a blast, but I don’t make so video about how I am somehow a better person because of it lol.
As with most things in life, you take what you give to it
I was peeing in a hole on the beach of Bali when an Indonesian woman approached me and said, “No poo poo!”
I haven’t gone poop since.
Traveling is like sex in that no matter how much you look at the pictures or read about it, the actual experience is so much better there is no substitute
I mean, it’s one thing to read about the Trans-Atlantic slave trade in books and another to go to a preserved slave castle in west Africa and have to integrate the modern day museum aspect of it and hear the horror stories while standing in the same spot where thousands of slaves were kept before being shipped off to the Americas. Or visit their ‘last bath’ point at a river where they were cleaned prior to the auction. And to see it now as the ‘first bath’ and a place of healing.
https://youtu.be/TbwlC2B-BIg?si=CJZbddegjYcXYVta
The only way travel broadens the mind is if you live and work abroad, otherwise you’re just a tourist no matter how you may big it up.
Modern tourism is going somewhere warm to take the same photos as a million other people, then go to the next place, and repeat
This take is posted so often it should be banned (and not considered unpopular).
Travelling is not guaranteed to make you a better person, but staying in one place your entire life is almost certain to leave you with a lot of biases and wrong opinions.
I grew up in a smaller almost entirely white suburb. I still know plenty of people who live there, some who never really leave. The dumb ideas you can come up with even if you’re relying on the internet/TV to “know things” are crazy. The easiest example is relatives who asked me in 2020 if I was safe when Seattle was “burning down” (it’s some people in a park. Nothing burned down, and I felt safer walking through CHOP than I do walking through a crowd of Seattle police officers), but there are so many – SO MANY – things.
There’s the people that assume that any major cities (whether it’s all cities or specific ones like Detroit) are warzones where you’re risking death any moment and were shocked I’d ride the bus without any concerns. There’s the people who talk in stereotypes about “immigrants”, “mexicans”, “Indians”, or so many other groups. There are people who just assume that everyone only has to wait 5 minutes in line to vote and there’s no one challenging if you’re a citizen based on the color of your skin, the people who assume everyone has access to grocery stores, the people who assume that everyone owns a car and can drive and if you can’t then you’re crazy, poor and worthless, or deserve what you get.
There’s the people who assume that everyone is a Protestant and that everyone else is a terrorist. There’s the people who assume that everyone should take more risks because if you fail you obviously have rich parents to fall back on who will give you more money or a place to live. There’s the people who assume all public transit must be awful because it’s awful in their city.
This is barely scratching the surface. Travelling exposes you to other people, other ideas, and other ways of living. Go out and see that you can live without a vehicle, that people with families do so readily. See other styles of dress, other kinds of food, other religions, philosophies, and ways of thinking. Talk to people. Make friends.
This is part of why the most bigoted people talk down things like going to university and travel – because exposure to people different than you is the best antidote to bigotry, once you realize that there are people different from you but they’re also good people and that you have things in common. Putting a face to the “other” is incredibly important and valuable.
Modern social media driven tourism is mostly a checklist of random sites and mediocre restaurants. I’ve taken family members to new countries and all they can think about is getting a photo at a random popular instragram spot. Some folks refuse to even leave the tour bus, never mind trying new foods, etc.
Travel for most people is stressful and intimidating
So they seek out comfort by allowing others to handle the logistics and eating familiar foods. Travel can be very rewarding but it’s definitely not for everyone.
If you dedicate time to actually interacting with people and engaging in cultural activities, it can be very enlightening and challenge your sense of normalcy, but that takes work…
Lots of things people do that I think are insane
(1) marriage
(2) reproduction
(3) games involving balls
(4) sports involving cars or any other kind of circular activity
(5) religion – it made sense when people didn’t know what the sun and the moon were.
its a matter of opinion
I think traveling definitely changes your perspective for the better, but as others have said in the comments, if someone is a shitty or miserable person, traveling isn’t going to magically fix that.
I think people that don’t travel at all often have a very small world, more likely to think small things are a big deal for instance. When your world is small, everything that happens is huge. Expanding your world and experience tends to put things in perspective and learning about other cultures is obviously very important.
Travel if done properly is enlightening and a process to unwind, learn, put yourself in situations to make decisions , out of comfort zone etc
But then again there are also idiots who do it to post on social media, or sit by a pool all day, or go by checklist of countries visited etc etc – they don’t really benefit and yes in those cases it’s expensive escapism
The weirdest part is when they talk about meeting nee people and stuff, and then its just people trying to sell them shit?
There are so many ways of traveling that one can’t make broad sweeping generalizations. It can be escapism, but that has value too. In general though, I find people who are willing to go to another country for even a vacation are already a bit more open minded by nature than someone who refuses to leave their country.
I have lived abroad twice. Once as an exchange student and once for work. I don’t know that those experiences made me “enlightened”, but I can say I learned a lot including 2 new languages.
I have done other shorter travels in which I have learned about the culture and people. Often it’s difficult to do if you don’t know someone who lives there that you can stay with. I’ve stayed with friends in other countries, and even if we were sight seeing and doing touristy things, I still learned more about the country and culture than by staying in hotels. Even staying in B&Bs, true B&Bs (not Airbnb) that are hosted and the hosts engage give you a better feel for a country.
Depending on how you function at resorts, you can also learn things. I talk to people. I talk to the staff. I met a Cuban man at a resort in Antigua who told me how there are many Cubans and Venezuelans working on the island. While in the Dominican Republic I had a conversation with one of the servers who told me about a car rental business he was starting and was asking me how it works in the United States. If you make human connections you’ll likely learn something.
I feel like working or volunteering in a foreign country is enlightening. Just visiting tourist spots is not. If you want a change of perspective, you need to be spending time immersed in the culture, side by side with the people.
It depends what you mean by travelling. If your goal is to stay in a hotel and visit tourist sites then yes its expensive. If your plan is to immerse yourself in culture and explore, that can be cheap as hell. I travelled to several countries in europe at 17 after i graduated and saved enough for a plane ticket and a $500 eurail pass. Everything else i figured out on the fly. I mostly lived on $10-25 a day and stayed with people i met on couches and hostels etc. it was great! If you are not willing to be uncomfortable at all it will be expensive.
Id say the most valuable aspect of travel is perspective. Gaining perspective on just how big and diverse our world is is what its about. Realizing how youre not the only one here and at the same time, you’re here living a unique life different from everyone else.
Travel is worth it and opens your world and your heart. If you don’t like it you’re either doing it wrong or are stuck in a rut.
If traveling were enlightening, the Swiss and Germans would have opened stores in their countries on Sunday long ago.
Why don’t you try it?
Depends on where u travel and why u travel.
Travelling to Ethiopia and going to a,small village and meeting people there and learning their way of life may enlighten them and change the way they think . But going on an all inclusive to salou and sunbathing for 2 weeks in an English speaking hotel with English food or popular food in england with English music on etc is as uskess to learning and growing as going to the other side of ur own town
It is definitely overly hyped. It really depends on who you are deep down. Someone that is open minded will gain a lot from other cultures by traveling. Someone that is not, wont.
The Accidental Tourist is about, among other things, a writer of travel guides on how to visit other countries with as little change as possible- things like where the McDonalds are, where to buy American groceries, what places spoke English etc
/long time since I read it
I never understood this. That’s not how std works, and I assume (hope) that people wash their dicks when they shower? Daily?
Experiencing different perspectives, values, and practices is one of the best ways to better yourself and traveling is a relatively easy way to break out of your routine and familiar. You can travel and be un-edified just like you can work with a team that speaks another language every day and never learn it — but obviously the opportunity is there.
Depends on how you travel, I think. Some people will just go to a big fancy resort, go on tours, and pretty much never interact with the actual place they’re in. They’re getting 0 value outta that
If you travel and actually spend some time kinda where people live, you can learn some new stuff. For example, as an American, I’m pissed that we can’t make decent public transit because I’ve seen it in so many other places that there’s simply no excuse
Sounds like you just suck at traveling
that’s only true insofar as to say that it’s not automatic.
it’s like taking a class- you still have to put in an effort to absorb the material, it’s not going to happen by osmosis simply because you showed up to the classroom.
All of living life is escapism from the fact you are going to die one day.
Like anything in life, it can be half-assed or done poorly or with poor intentions. But there are ways to travel, disrupting your usual routine at home for something potentially wildly different, that can be very eye opening and profound.
Also, it takes a lot of privilege to belittle someone for not travelling.
Agree and disagree.
I’ve met people who have never left their country and it’s been very obvious that they have no idea that things are different in other countries and how to be understanding of other cultures, so travel can be helpful in that way.
However, a lot of people can’t afford to travel so its ignorant to act like travelling is the only way to understand the world, you can also just do online research about other cultures and read books.
Also, “travel” has lots of different meanings, like you’re definitely not going to become any more cultured if your idea of travelling is just staying in the resort most of the time and exclusively going to tourist attractions that are clearly designed for foreign tourists, but you will become more cultured if your trip involves meeting locals, doing activities that locals do and eating foods that locals eat, learning some of the local language/dialect and if possible, staying for a long period of time to really immerse yourself in the culture.
I’d say you need to be predisposed for travel to have that profound effect, most people won’t get it, especially when just going on a resort vacation
I’ve traveled all over the world and it has been deeply enriching. Going on vacation is a different thing
Depends on where you go and how you spend your time. Commercialized tourism is mostly a waste of time. Visiting with real people and immersing in their culture and working on a project- those are rewarding experiences.
Culture shock is where the personal growth originates. Not vacation.
ive definitely met people who have travelled all over the world, and even lived in other places, and it seems like nothing of the place actually penetrated their veneer. some people learn and grow and change with travel/cultural experiences, and other seem to be pre-baked.
It depends how you do it. But yes, going to a mall across the planet isn’t enlightening.
Escapism… well, yeah…. That’s the point… if I have to be part of the rat race 50 weeks of the year, I’m ecsaping the other 2… Heavy price tag… sure… but I can afford it and do…
I disagree. I learned a lot when I traveled. Broke down stereotypes.
Love this. What’s enlightening is being content with where you are and loving your ground
I actually have seen it change people, but that was not vacation travel. Deployments in the military, or being stationed overseas has definitely changed people for the better, who were originally raging assholes and/or racist. It’s also changed them for the worse, so it’s kind of a mixed bag, whether the experience is good or not.
I don’t disagree, there are a lot of people who travel constantly and it becomes their personality. The only thing they can talk about is the places they’ve been.
Traveling is getting shittier. More people, it is costing more constantly.
It can be expensive escapism. It can also be exposure to entirely different foods, fabrics, buildings, norms, etc than one is exposed to at home.
When I was 18 I spent 3 mos in Europe & it changed how I perceived the world: it expanded my frame of reference beyond what was cool in my high school. Similarly, so did my liberal arts college (even tho I never did much w/ my major, professionally).
Yes, it’s enlightening. My first time traveling, I had gone to Mexico. Although I had stayed at a private small resort, having travelled from Tijuana to Ensañada via bus, I saw extreme poverty. Just by looking out, I saw people living in middle of nowhere situated in brick homes no bigger than a semi with no front door and makeshift windows. I saw and understood at this moment why my parents chose to immigrate. It is why I push myself to be the best version of myself and why I should pursue a higher education. There are so many women like me who will never get the chance to have intellectual pursuits, who will never go past the state of survival into a state of higher being and purpose, so fuck your limited way of thinking.
If anything, if you can’t reflect and become more self-aware of yourself during these trips it speaks more of you than of traveling.
I have learnt to become more independent during my solo trips, i’ve learnt new cuisines and seen how others rely on nourishment on foods I would never touch, I have learnt the history of other countries, I have learnt how far I could push myself and more.
I think it really depends on what you do, if you just stay in a resort with people from home then that’s just escapism, but if you’re learning about the history and culture of your destination and meeting new people, that counts for something, you learn from that.
Seeing the world beyond your small bubble where you live and experiencing other cultures first-hand absolutely makes you more cultured, especially if you actually partake in the cultures you’re visiting. If you’re going to a resort and never stepping foot in anything local then yes, I agree, but if you put in any effort to get to know the local people and their way of life, then YES, it makes you more cultured and “wordly”. Does that give you a license to be a jerk about it? No, of course not. But the fact remains that you DO know/have seen more of the world and people than those who have never stepped foot outside of their own country or even town.
Traveling only broadens your horizons if you’re open to having your horizons broadened. Otherwise, you’re just the same dickhead in a different deckchair.
Quote, word for word, at min 28:00. Words to live by
Why not something in the middle, enjoying a nice vacation abroad doesn’t have to be expensive nor escapism? Or do you think anything you do for entertainment is “escapism”?
I’ll give you an upvote this not only unpopular opinion, but wrong opinion.
It can be both! Some people get out of their comfort zone, expand their mind, do uncomfortable things, are humbled by language or cultural barriers, try new foods, gain appreciation for history/art/architecture, figure out a new transportation system, and problem solve. It doesn’t have to be earth shattering to change a person.
In my opinion, you can change just by finding joy and beauty in both ordinary things (figuring out a subway or metro) and extraordinary (where I live, there are no gothic cathedrals, and I find those EXTRAORDINARY and they take my breath away… isn’t that awe some kind of change?) But it doesn’t have to be halfway across the world. But sometimes it does remind you that you are from one teeny tiny corner of the world and there is so much more out thete and that’s a very interesting perspective some can’t feel unless they travel.