Jillian’s December 1 Post: Travel to Greater Understanding

Has travel shifted your perspective of the world, or yourself in it?

While writing Change Your Life Through Travel, I discovered that, like all good journeys, the path does not always unfold as we have imagined it. One great unexpected theme emerged during my interviews. When I asked people if they wanted to add anything to our exchange, nearly all spoke on one central topic. David, a marketing executive and father of two children, said, travel is “bigger than pleasure.” He suggested we need to get our “eyes and ears opened. And I don’t think there’s any way to do that except to get on the road... Try to have a new life experience. And, in the process, we will all become more enlightened...”

Jeanette, a woman who has ventured to several countries alone, said, “I think the world would be a better place if more people would travel. And I don’t mean just getting in your car and going from Point A to Point B. I mean actually traveling and meeting different people of different cultures. I don’t think we’d have half the problems we have in the world today if more people traveled this way. I think wars would be fewer. I think we would have less fear. There would be more love in the world because people would see that just because you live across an ocean, or across a country, that you’re OK and I’m OK. And it’s OK for you to be different, I can still like you.”

Billy, a professional musician, realized after traveling to many foreign locales for work and then for pleasure, said, “We are all the same – only different.”

How has travel changed your mind, or the way you see life and your place in it?

I wish you happy holidays and best wishes for a new year filled with greater understanding.