I'm fortunate to have had the opportunity to travel. I'm originally from India, have lived in four countries and have had experiences that I wouldn't trade for the world. I have my parents to thank for that. My Dad worked in hotels and he applied for jobs abroad taking us wherever he worked.
In my culture a lot of families don't travel with the breadwinner when they work overseas. It's usually the man. They even stay with groups of other men in a shared accommodation. Remittance is a big part of many countries' economies. Persons working abroad often send a large chunk of their earnings back home supporting an entire family.
In my case I'm glad that we stayed together as a family and travelled wherever my Dad worked. We went on family vacations frequently, part of which there were frequent trips back home. I'm sure lots of people would have encouraged my Dad to invest his earnings instead because I distinctly remember my Grandad telling me when I was around twelve that if my Dad didn't travel so much he would have been rich!
What I'm focusing on in the post is the knowledge you gain from travelling that is unparallel to anything else. I's said that you learn a lot about other cultures, people...etc. What travelling has also done is helped me learn about myself, my own culture etc. through perspective. We often take things for granted until we realized how good we have it or how things work in other parts of the world.
“Travel makes you realize that no matter how much you know, there’s always more to learn.”
Nyssa P. Chopra
Here are some of the ways I think you can learn from travelling:
Experiencing other cultures and ways of life
Experiencing another culture has always been fascinating for me. When I was little it was the language. Getting to learn another language was fun and as kids you have less inhibitions that pose as barriers to speaking a foreign language. I would encourage you to travel with your children from an early age. It's one of the best things you can do for them.
You get to see the other ways of life than can help you in many ways. It gives you increased empath and understanding of others. When you see how good or bad the societal structure and ways are in other countries you put things into perspective that would either make you realize that you've taken a loved one for granted or you can have a better relationship than you previously had based on what you've learnt.
My really big takeaway was on fast food. Growing up there weren't any fast off outlets or even cafes in my town back home. When I watched Hollywood movies, I always envied American's for the vast choice of fast offs they had. Now in my country families cook three meals every day. But I didn't care much for that when I saw people on T.V. stuffing their faces with pizzas or in Archies's comics when Jughead used to eat hotdogs.
When I travelled, I started to appreciate home cooked food more. Especially now when I have my own family and I know the health implications of eating out frequently. It's hard to keep up with cooking everyday especially since it's become more necessary for both partners to work. For me breakfast is the hardest part, I was used to having a hot breakfast as a kid and I cooked it myself when I got older.
When we are crunched for time and were rushing out the house with the kids sometimes my wife catches me in the kitchen and says "You can't afford to have a hot breakfast everyday!" I'm probably spoilt in her eyes as she grew up having cereal on school days. Cooked breakfast was for weekends and holidays.
An opportunity to step outside of one's comfort zone and challenge oneself
Whether it be gender specific roles or taking on new tasks, in a new country we do face new realities and norms. I grew up in a culture and era where we weren't so DIY (do it yourself). If I recall correctly, I think it was looked down upon to fix stuff in your own house like you couldn't afford a handyman. However, I remember my mom could use a power drill around the house. Something women in our culture weren't accustomed using, those tasks were left to men. Now I didn't grow up with those traits. In college when I rented an apartment if the fan wasn't working, I'd call an electrician. While I couldn't fix stuff around the apartment, I'd pride myself for my network of resources. I knew a guy for almost everything. If a friend's fridge or A/c was broken I knew a guy who could rent one to them. When I met my wife who isn't from my country she was on her own and I was able to get her a cleaning lady to come every day and door- to door laundry service. Litle did she know the nature of the setup for the laundry service! A day we ended up going in to collect her laundry as the guy couldn't deliver it to her, the place they operated out of had a travel agency in the front and they did the laundry in the back!
I'm paying the price now when it comes to fixing things around the house though. Since I'm not used to doing things myself, it doesn't come to me naturally. My colleagues at a company I worked for had a good laugh a few years ago when they all voted for me to put up a vinyl banner on the wall. I had to drill two holes on the wall 8 feet high standing on a ladder. I was struggling to balance and put my bodyweight onto the drill. I wasn't embarrassed though, I told them it was the first time that I ever used a drill. At 31!
I've changed though. Managed to replace the kitchen faucet, front door lock and a switch plate myself! Would I have done these tasks myself if I were living in my own country? Probably not.
Increased Creativity and Inspiration from Experiencing new Sights, Sounds, and Tastes
Whether you're an artist, blogger or chef, it's one thing to get inspiration and ideas from Youtube but travelling can crank up the creative bug in you. Taking your skills to another level.
As a break dancer I got an opportunity to make a couple of trips to Taiwan and Germany to compete in events and attend events. I got to meet some of the best dancers in the scene. What shocked me was how down to earth they were. Seeing people who tour the globe that are so approachable and humble changed my approach to a lot of things not just dance.
Sometimes it's not even about exposure to talent but a new environment that stimulates you after you've stagnated due to the monotony of your routine.
Travelling makes you more open minded and accepting. I often gravitate to people who travel a lot. However, there are also people who travel but never experience other cultures. Some migrate and never really assimilate into their host countries. I have nothing against them, but they tend to be clannish. I've tried but failed to create relationships with a lot of expats especially from my country who are like this. I can't seem to connect with them. I often wonder how much they are missing out on life's experiences.
What are your thoughts on what I've written about in this post? Feel free to drop a comment. If you liked my post please give it an upvote and reblog it.