“The natural world doesn’t come with an instruction leaflet, so it teaches you to use your creative imagination.”
It pretty much sums up what I think about travel. This is a part of the news article from BBC how nature deficit is harming children.
Throughout many interviews I did with fellow bloggers, a lot of them asked me why we all should travel. I always thought it was the thrill about the unknown, the excitement, the adrenaline from the new adventures and the freedom. But slowly, I’ve realized there was a much bigger underlining reason. It is about learning how to be independent and knowing who you really are.
Why we all should travel?
Ever since I could read, I read a lot of books. My favourite thing to do when I was even before 10 was to visit a big bookstore and read all day long. My number one birthday gift was book or bookstore gift card. My eyesight got extremely bad because I always read until the moment I fell a sleep in the dark. My goal of each year in highschool was to read 100 books a year and I accomplished that few times. I was obsessed with science magazines. I’m not smart, but I was and am street smart. At least I thought I was.
I’m from a big city, but it wasn’t a big city when I was growing up. I grew up in a house that didn’t have a hot water. I was out in the field catching butterflies and dragonflies in summer. I went skating in winter and hiking in the mountain in autumn. I wasn’t particularly outdoorsy, but I enjoyed the nature.
When I was 20, I took a year off from my school. The reason? I got sick of studying everyday. I wanted to live in a different country. But I had no language skill, and I wasn’t sure I could do it. So what did I do for a year? I worked, saved and made my way to the very first backpacking trip to New Zealand. The short one-month of time completely changed my life and who I am. It was the time I was totally depending on myself, and my ability to make a decision. There was no one to call and ask for help. Everything was my responsibility. Everything I’ve known for 20 years was 14 hours away from me. I was alone. But, I survived. A girl from Korea who didn’t speak English and never backpacked before survived from her first solo backpacking trip.
I was a bookworm. I was a good student. I was smart. But, I was inexperienced. I was always ‘the one with the knowledge and the experience’ among my friends, but not quite compare to the wide and wild world.
What I learned was that there are so many things that I want to know that I didn’t know about. And still, I want to know better about me. Through out the experiences and expeditions I had during the years of travels made me realized that. Knowledge from the books certainly helped, but that was not all. It was the biggest change. The person who I was before the trip changed the person who this day. Well it sounds like I was a horrible person, but not that; I’m taking about the experience and mutuality. I was always ‘the confident one’ but I learned how to be modest and be confident at the same time. I learned how to take care of myself. I learned about me that I didn’t know about it before. I figured a lot of stuff by actually doing it. I learned how to appreciate what I had, not focused on what I didn’t have.
I’ve met so many immature people. People who don’t even know how to please themselves. They don’t know what to do when a little amount of free time on their hands. They are afraid to be alone, and they are refused to be different. For me, that’s immature. No matter how big house they live in, how old they are; that doesn’t really impress me. For me, they are just not-grown grown-ups. And I’m glad I’m not walking the same path.
The natural world doesn’t come with an instruction leaflet and also so do us. We’d never know who we really are unless we are trying. There’s no leaflet for any of that, and I’m writing it one page at a time. That is why we all should travel.
What do you think? What do you think why we all should travel?
