“I am not the same having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world.”
~Mary Anne Radmacher
A lot has been written about the value of travel. That it is the great practical learning experience that will change your life. That you will discover yourself, expand your awareness, build self-confidence, see the bigger picture, learn new things, create wonderful memories, become more independent, and less materialistic. Travel is empowering, humbling, terrifying, and rewarding.
I had an art professor in college, Michael Ott, who spent some time driving across Kansas. That may sound mundane, but he took many photographs along the way of small town outdoor advertising, painted barn-side proclamations, posted ephemera on two-lane highways, and roadside farmyard art. He had a keen eye for observing the mundane, and treated his students to a slide show of his photo-artistic documentaries. As a graphic design student, I was intrigued with the folk art qualities and content of his subject matter, but his images also revealed a singular slice of culture and perspective distinctive to the region.
The idea of travel may ignite visions of exotic places, but it isn’t necessary to go far to gain the rewards of travel, as long as you embrace wherever you go, engage in the experience, be observant and mindful of even the most ordinary. Foreign places may be just a weekend road trip away, or try being a tourist in your own city. While I will always encourage travel as far as you can go and as young as you can begin, at the very least I encourage you to be willing to let go and travel outside the comfort zone of your own “box”…to really discover yourself in a greater context. Prepare to be amazed.
“And if travel is like love, it is, in the end, mostly because it’s a heightened state of awareness, in which we are mindful, receptive, undimmed by familiarity and ready to be transformed. That is why the best trips, like the best love affairs, never really end.”
~Pico Iyer