To Go or Not to Go: 5 Rewards of Global Travel

This is a guest post by Kimberly Juchnowski of Tikikiki.com.

Experiences do more for you than do the material possessions your money can by—they not only add to your bank of memories but actually change you, leaving an impression that lingers long into the future.  For this reason, modern globetrotters reject the static calm of material wealth and instead choose to be rich in experience, rejecting the traditional life plan.

Some of you may not be quite convinced of the riches of the road and all you can bring away from global travel.  I’m not here to convince you.  For someone like me, a person who doesn’t “understand” why I live as I do just won’t ever get it…

So this article is more for those of you who do understand and perhaps want to follow in my wandering footsteps.  Let’s reflect on some of the rewards offered by a long-term global excursion.

1.  Memories

Nothing beats the warmth of good memory, and while memories always exist somewhere beyond our grasp, no longer tangible, they somehow provide more for us for years to come than do the things we can hold in our hands.  I cannot explain this, and I’m not so sure anyone can.  I don’t even dare try.

But it is true nonetheless.

Anyone who has experienced a trip abroad cherishes these memories and shares them with everyone, don’t they?  In short, they can’t seem to shut up about their experiences, even though they know they are becoming annoying.  The laughs.  The foods.  The people.  The things they wish they could describe but just cannot.

And what about you?  What do you tell people about that just fills you with energy?  How do you communicate to people who you are?  Is it not by sharing the memories that fill your heart and never leave?

While memories seem fleeting in nature, they shape our lives and give them meaning.  Life abroad somehow carves these memories even deeper, enriching both our present and our future with the mark they leave.

2.  A Global Perspective

Global travel shrinks the world down to a level you can understand just a little bit more.  With globalization moving so fast no entity on earth could ever stop its progress, it is more important than ever to know what is going on in the world.

And getting out there makes what you read in the papers ring truer.  You feel it because you’ve seen the way the people in those places live.  You question it because you’ve seen the view from a distance often obscures.

3.  A Different Point of View

When traveling, we share pieces of our lives with other people who have a completely different idea of the human experience than we do, who somehow live in a completely different reality here on Earth.  And through this we realize everything we think we know is not quite so cut and dry.

It’s harder to hold onto prejudices when we see sometimes it’s others who are right.  It’s harder to quarrel with other nations when we have reached an understanding of their perspective.

4.  Empathy

Not only do we see that other points of view have merit, but going global forces us to come face to face with harsher realities of the world that we can put on the back burner back at home.  We see how not everyone in the world has the freedom to move freely around the world that we do.

Seeing the world’s marginalized, people victimized by cultural and environmental horrors, and accepting invitations into their homes makes them so much more human to us.  These experiences force us to think through the consequences of our lifestyles.

5.  Creates Possibility

One of my favorite results of global travel is how by crossing political borders you break down the borders in your mind.  You meet people on a daily basis who are doing crazy, wonderful things that you never dreamed possible back home, and slowly but surely you see a world of infinite possibilities.

Your life will not be a fantasy, but after some time it will feel like one in comparison to the life you rejected to go out on the road.

World travel is within reach of the common man like no other time in history.  Due to new technologies and trends, just about anyone with a somewhat decent dose of intelligence can arrange life in such a way that they can tour the world and still collect a paycheck.

Are you ready to do the same?

About the Author:

Kimberly is a twenty something travel junkie who has a passion for travel in Southeast Asia. She shares loads of tips on her website. There you will find articles like finding the best guesthouses to what it’s like to learn Thai. Feel free to follow Kimberly on Twitter @tikitravel and like Tikikiki on facebook!