My first trip abroad was when I was 18. I had decided to
study the ancient Near East and archaeology.
My major professor invited me to excavate in Jordan for the summer after
my freshman year. Before you think, “sure, that’s nice for a kid with financial
means," I'll stop you. When I
booked that flight to live abroad for two months, I was also putting myself through
college. Not a dime came from home (though mom sent me a pair of shoes that
first Christmas). I worked and saved since the minute I turned 16 during a
summer in which my single-mom family was also homeless. I managed to save
enough to pay for my first year of college (I wasn’t sure how to pay for the
second year yet) and now I was going to add world travel to the budget? I am glad
nobody talked me out of it. That first trip had me hooked.
I would find a way to pay for college and still make trips
to excavate and travel abroad. A four-year degree followed by a master’s degree, then two different programs for a Ph.D. I traveled or lived in Jordan,
Greece, Turkey, Italy, Israel, Syria, Egypt, and Sweden. My husband shared similar
experiences and a passion for including our children in international travel as
early as possible. We sacrificed but we were able to make our first trip to
Italy when our youngest of three turned seven years old. We managed to haul
them all several times to Italy,
Greece, and Turkey as they grew up because travel isn’t just nice, it is
necessary. Here’s why:
Travel Teaches
Actual Tolerance (not the cheap imitation that people refer to today)
When you live and move in a culture that is not your own,
you learn that different ideas, tastes, preferences, languages, and
perspectives can and do co-exist nicely. Outside is a place where people don’t
just encounter zillions of differences and tiny (or not so tiny) hardships,
they improve and flourish from being around them. Travel helps you learn how
little you need. Done well, travelers discover “inconvenience”
is just a magnificent adventure in disguise.
Travel Teaches Actual Patriotism
The old-fashioned virtue of patriotism is at risk. I
blame in part a lack of travel. Travel abroad almost always makes one more
patriotic. It is easy to believe the condemnations of your homeland if you lack the
perspective and experience to inform you otherwise. The worst critics of
America have never left her borders. It is a joy to experience the love others have for their own nations as they share their foods, music, monuments, lifestyles, and traditions with visitors. It is not evil to love one's own nation and enjoy that patriotism in others.
Travel Teaches Actual Gratitude
You may never be more thankful for the kindness of others
until you are lost and need directions in a foreign city or at risk of disastrously boarding
the wrong train. A thousand details abroad will differ from home.
Many of them are beautiful! You’ll spend a lifetime trying to recreate them during your mundane days. Many of them are dreadful!
You’ll spend a lifetime better appreciating places that are free of rubbish strewn
hillsides, open sewers, deeply sketchy restaurants, or hundreds of other unpleasantries
that are completely normal elsewhere but, hopefully, rare back home.
Travel Teaches that Life isn’t Safe and That’s
OK
This last one is
the most important one. A life led exclusively in a safe, clean, tidy, guard-railed-and-padded bubble is no life at all. Real life isn’t safe. It never has been, it never will be. People who don't venture from their false bubble will be traumatized by even the smallest puncture. Life is jam-packed with small (and large) disasters. Travel abroad inoculates us from many of life’s traumas. The world has very few
guard rails and rare are the warning signs. When you travel,
you learn how to cope, manage, and navigate. Develop yourself! Be awake, be wary, but be
bold as you travel this life.
No comments:
Post a Comment