19 April 2009

EVERYONE needs to travel

Trust me, Everyone. I'm not kidding here, guys (and girls). You NEED to travel. There's no getting out of it! Come on, get out of your home city, your home state, or, if you have the money, your home country! You can't stay in one place your whole life and become a hermit. TRAVEL, TRAVEL, TRAVEL.

Oh, and here's 10 reasons why =]
1. You get great pictures.
Assuming, of course, you are a picture person. I am. I take pictures of EVERYTHING. Well...everything except myself, that is. =D I'm really weird in that I take a bazillion pictures of the scenery and the cities and the flashing lights and the other people and occasionally the food (lol), but never of myself. Like, I have all these great pictures of New York, and very, very little proof that I was actually there. I mean, I was, of course. I have a few pictures of myself, but they are overwhelmed drastically, alarmingly, by pictures of...not me. *wink* Anyway, the point is, that travel gives you a lot of amazing pictures that you can show your friends, even if they do not want to see them. Just sit them down in front of a slideshow of your pictures and make them! Muahahahaha! Okay, also, they are a GREAT way to keep memories and keep track of events and how it felt and looked to be in that place.* PICTURE TIME!

A PICTURE OF ME!!!!!! *gasp*
2. You meet a lot of awesome people!
Even if you are traveling with your parents, you are bound to meet SOME people who are awesome and cool and amazing. People who have different accents and funny habits and awesomeness. But, you especially meet a lot of awesome people if you go somewhere by yourself or if you go somewhere with your parents but get to be away from them at certain points (ie a cruise). These people could be lifelong friends....or, you could also never see them again. Either way, you got to meet a bunch of awesome, interesting people, and learn something about the people who live there and how they act and talk and blah, blah, blah (that's German for etc). So you don't have any stereotypes or assumptions about people, because you actually KNOW. And that's always good.

3. You have EXPERIENCE.
And I mean ACTUAL, worldly experience. You've traveled, you've experienced. You've done things, seen things, eaten things, met people, traveled to exotic places.** You can do a lot of great, awesome things when you travel, like go sailboating or swim with dolphins or climb over 400 stairs. You can see beautiful places and experience them in an upfront way. You can eat funny foods (that you might not like) but never have to eat them again...or you could eat amazing exotic foods and come home with a recipe on how to cook it because you love it so much. And, you've met people from other cultures,*** religions, places, customs, traditions, and so on. EXPERIENCE. Trust me, it's a good thing. People will gravitate towards you because you know so much...maybe.

4. You can see history right in front of you.
By this, I mean you can see historical PLACES right in front of you. Rather than just reading about, say, Jamestown, you can actual go SEE Jamestown. You can visit castles and forts and everything, and actually SEE the history. Definitely more exciting than reading about it, right? I certainly think that my interest in history came very much from actually getting to experience it and wanting to know more. Anyway, the real thing is better than a picture or a description any day. (The Alamo, Ellis Island, Statue of Liberty, Tower of London, Trier, etc)

5. You can gain insight on global issues firsthand.
I always think it's better to see both sides of a global issue, and what better way to do that than traveling? Visiting places like the UN or European Union**** allow you to see how our global issues actually get solved, as well. Or, visiting a poor country in the Caribbean helps you gain insight into their situation and how you can help. Well, just traveling to a different country in general lets you see their insight into different global issues, especially if you talk to the people there. =]

World Trade Center site

6. You see a lot of great, beautiful places.
Uh...this one should be sort of self-explanatory. When you travel, you get to see beautiful places! Forests, mountains, oceans, cities, farms, buildings....Sunsets, sunrises, rain....Flowers, butterflies, new wildlife. Er, okay. I think I'll just leave it there. When you travel, you see beautiful places, okay?

7. You can "escape your own problems."
This one is sort of self-explanatory, too. When you go away from home, you don't have to think about your own problems anymore. I'm not saying you WON'T think about your problems. But they aren't there, right in front of you anymore. And sometimes it's really good to just go somewhere else and not think about your problems for a while. So, go relax on the beach or travel around Italy.***** Get away for a little while!

8. You have great material for stories!
Yes, yes. Again. Once again, you are at that same party. And, you know that a story about traveling is MUCH more interesting than a stupid story or a conversation about books! So, this time, you are almost guaranteed to have people like your story. EVERYONE likes travel stories...because they wish they could've gone, too! So, you start telling that great story about the time you went to the Bunker Hill monument in Boston and actualy climbed up and down all 472 stairs (or however many there were). Then, not only is everyone interested in your story, they also want to tell their great travel stories! So you started a whole conversation topic! Hurrah!

9. Some beautiful places might be gone if you don't go NOW!!! Okay, so this one is slightly depressing. But it's TRUE. If you don't go to some of these national parks soon, they might be gone. Glacier National Park certainly won't last long if climate change continues. Alaska won't be the same...and neither will Greenland. If you have the money, go on that trip to Svalbard now before all the polar bears are gone! (Sad day, that day will be) Travel now, before we destroy the natural beauty of our world!

10. You have something to blog about!
It always, ALWAYS ends in this. Because, as I said, travel stories, just by being travel stories, are inherently interesting! So if you run out of things to blog about, just describe a great (or maybe not so great) travel experience. =] Shameless self-promotion of previous blog FTW! Traveling, Traveling Great blog material any day, traveling. =]

So...summarization? TRAVEL!!!!!!!!!!!! You shouldn't need a reason, but here are some great ones.

Until tomorrow! Cheers! DFTBA!

*Especially for when you're older and don't remember going somewhere when you were 2...Your parents have those pictures, so it must be true!
**Even if that exotic place is Texas or the next town....
***Again, even if that culture is Texan or Denver...ian
****I haven't been to the EU, though I'd like to. The UN was great, though!
*****Provided, of course, you have the money. Spending all your money is NOT a good way to escape your problems.

No comments: