Raised in Michigan, a state with bountiful shoreline and beautiful state parks, I didn't venture too far from home for most of my youth. There were the occasional family trips across the country, the most memorable being the one to California and back after my High School graduation, complete with a robbery, car accident, and engine flames in the cab of the motor home while driving down the highway (these and other episodes will perhaps be covered in future musings). Mostly, however, I stayed close to home in the good old Flint area. My first airline flight didn't occur until age 19 when I went to pick up a car in Oklahoma.
Then it all changed. I spent some time in Texas as a student, then attended grad school in Pittsburgh, then went to finish my Master's degree in Toyohashi, Japan. My view of life was forever molded and expanded by these experiences. I had been bitten by the travel bug. I soon thereafter began traveling for for my job, and went out west to visit friends when I got time off work. Eventually my entrepreneurial endeavors took me across most of the United States and Canada. Finally, I began traveling abroad on vacations, more to study and learn than as a holiday.
Travel can sometimes be a bear, especially considering weather delays, mechanical problems, lines, germs, and a myriad of other inconveniences. However, it can almost always be considered a blessings if experienced with a good attitude and seen in the correct light. After all, there is still something exhilarating about sitting in a chair and hurling through the sky at 500 miles per hour. It is still a thrill to sit down, then stand up a few hours later at a different spot on the map.
Walking the parapet of a castle in Cardiff, seeing purple ridges in Killarney, looking out over Florence from the lantern of Brunelleschi's Dome in the Duomo, driving a Smart Car through the tight streets of Santorini, riding a water taxi in Venice, kayaking in Dubrovnik, scuba diving in the British Virgin Islands, or working with the children of the Favellas just outside Rio are all experiences that leave their imprint on a person. Cultures, languages, topography, mores, manners, customs, climates, and histories are all different and infinitely interesting. International travel opens one's eyes and heart to an entire world of people who in many ways live differently, but in many important ways share the same characteristics.
I would heartily recommend a good dose of international travel to everyone who is able. Although it's a cliche that it will broaden your horizons, it also happens to be true. It will increase your understanding of your fellow man, soften your heart to the plights of others less fortunate, increase your grace in handling differences and peculiarities, open your eyes to possibilities, and enlighten you in your perspective on the size of God's world while helping to clarify your place in it. I know for me, international travel has always produced deep moments of gratitude and speculation, engendering thoughts such as, "I could be doing more."
If you don't already have it on your dreams list to travel abroad, allow me to heartily make the recommendation. It will cost money and gobble up some time, but it will be worth it. I consider it a facet of my lifelong, self-directed educational process, and therefore priceless. I have written elsewhere with some recommendations and considerations for international travel for those serious about putting detail into their travel dreams.
I believe international travel can and should also evolve into something more than just personal gratification - it should be about service to others. There are unlimited needs around the globe where we can pitch in and make a difference. Get involved in your church's mission efforts to spread the gospel and feed the orphans and widows, for example. We are needed, perhaps more than ever, in person and on the spot to demonstrate the source of our blessings and to give back from all that we've been given.
There will be a thousand reasons and distractions and interruptions that will attempt to stop you, but make it a priority to get out and see the world (and serve the world) yourself. Build your business to the point where you can afford the time and money, or work your career hard enough to earn the time off necessary, or, if you are in the years of your formal education, perhaps you could seek out some of the many study abroad programs that have become so popular. You will learn more than you can imagine, grow more than you might predict, contribute more than you might otherwise, and enjoy it more than you can probably believe. Your adventure awaits. Live purposely and travel light.
