Exploring Horizons: 5 Compelling Reasons Why We Travel
Picture this: a winding road stretching out before you, the sun kissing your skin, and a sense of freedom that knows no bounds. Traveling — it’s not just a journey, it’s a symphony of reasons that tug at our adventurous souls. As a traveler myself and someone who does it as a lifestyle not just a job I have my own insights on what we as humans are looking for with our travels.
1. Cultural Exploration
I have traveled to 4 out of 5 continents and the cultural differences, traditions, languages, food, and lifestyles are my number one favorite thing to explore. It’s fascinating to see the immense diversity our world has to offer and by traveling and getting a chance to experience these differences first hand gives you a new perspective and understanding of the world around us. It has been clear to me that not every information we have is accurate to the reality of each country so it has been refreshing and eye-opening to get to see these things first hand and report back on what I saw vs what I heard. Exploring different cultures has lead me to believe that even with our differences, we are all somehow related and share commonalities.
2. Personal Growth and Self-Discovery
Every time you travel you’re pushing your own boundaries and getting out of your comfort zone, and that looks different to each one of us. Some people have fear and anxiety related to the planning, others to the traveling day itself, other might choose a destination that is completely out of the box for them. Regardless of what we fear, every experience we insert ourselves in will teach us about our limits, expand our confidence, a deeper understanding of ourselves and all that leads to our growth. I was sent to work in Ethiopia during Covid and I can tell you I was absolutely terrified, yet I still went and it was the beginning of my journey working with the UN in countries I’d never think of going to. Besides not regretting it, it gave me a new found respect for these countries and their people, it thought me many things about myself like my attachment to home and comparing every place to my country, how much I’m willing to explore and try, and best thing, a year later I met my fiancé which wouldn’t have happened if I had said no to going in the first place. Coincidence? I don’t think so.
3. Building Memories and Experiences
I’m a firm believer in having experiences rather than bringing a bunch of shitty souvenirs to say I have been in x place. I used to be a traveler that was looking only for museums and tourist attractions that everyone went to because I thought that was the only way of seeing places. After living in a suitcase for the last 5 years and staying minimum of 1 month per each country I go to, these are no longer things I look for when I travel. For example, me and my fiancé just came from Amsterdam and the first thing we avoided was the tourist traps and attractions. One for all of these things being overpriced, second because we went on a day trip and we didn’t want to waste time on another museum. So we walked around some of the neighborhoods of the city, we searched for local coffee shops and restaurants, we went to a lookout point in the city that wasn’t too crowed and we enjoyed our time together much more than if we had limited ourselves to closed activities and places. Did we still see the touristy places? Sure did. Red light district, the famous weed shops, the fries that everyone is eating in every corner of Amsterdam, but we didn’t limit ourselves to that. We want to make memories, take our pictures so that one day we can tell our kids about our adventures
4. Social Connections and Networking
This came as a consequence rather than the main reason for me personally on why I travel but it has been something that long-term has benefited me immensely. I started traveling for work as a Cabin Crew so of course interacting with many people and meeting people everywhere around the globe was one of the things I got as a reward. Both friendships and business contacts which now have opened up new ideas, new job opportunities, new possibilities for me that otherwise I would have never been able to achieve. Benefit from this as well is that in our digital era, I was able to meet most if not all of these people in person or worked with them so they have their own opinions of me or my work in real life. I have met as well travelers that meeting people and making friendships is their main goal with traveling so there’s no one size fits all for each one of our reasons.
5. Appreciating Home
Even though I don’t have a home of my own now given my job but as well because me and my fiancé are from completely different countries and we have no idea where home is at this time, I still associate home to my parents home in Portugal. When I started this job it was such a relief and comfort to be back in their house that the more I left and came back I got more and more appreciative of that life, and now I want to settle and make my own home somewhere. I love traveling and I don’t see myself fully being stuck in one place all the time but having a home base and a place to reconnect with myself and my surroundings is more and more critical for my happiness. When you travel and see the living conditions of some countries, their lifestyle it makes it very clear for you individually to identify what you are looking for yourself and what you want to stay away from.
Remember, whether you’re out to find yourself, feast on global flavors, or simply swap routine for a hammock on the beach, there’s a reason — or a dozen — to set out on an adventure. See you around fellow traveler!
