Learn to travel, travel to learn

Story highlights:
● A tourist leaves and returns to the same place, with additional knowledge
● Body language and facial expressions are a universal language and the majority of people are nice.
● People have been traveling for self-understanding for as long as history has been recorded.
● Every experience in any foreign place, contributes to form on9es’ identity.

In a Tedtalk, Robin Esrock discusses the realization that he had when he was hit by a car while riding his bike, “We’re not getting any younger.” With his $20,000 insurance settlement he bought a round-the-world ticket and visited 24 countries in twelve months.

Travel means many things to different people, whether it’s a cultural experience, an escape, a business opportunity, an adventure, a time for family, or for self-exploration; every new experience, provides a unique growing opportunity. Tourism is...

“Tour” is derived from the Latin, 'tornare' and the Greek, 'tornos', which means circle or the movement around a central point. When the suffixes –ism or –ist are added, they describe movement around a circle. A circle represents a starting point, that returns back to its beginning. Like a circle, a tour can be described as a round-trip journey. Literally, a tourist is a person who leaves and returns to the original starting point. However that person returns back to the original point slightly changed and possibly with newfound knowledge.

The World Tourism Organization, a United Nations agency in charge of promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism, defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes.” However, sometimes what seems like carefree vacationing can become a culturally rewarding travel experience unexpectedly.

“I personally think the line between vacation and meaningful travel is pretty blurry. Of course, there is a big difference between doing volunteer work abroad and just going to a metropolitan area to shop and eat at restaurants, but a change in culture is an experience of value, regardless of the setting,” said O’rel Anbar, who has been traveling internationally and documenting his experiences on a photo website since he graduated high school in 2012.

“A change in culture is an experience of value, regardless of the setting.” -O’rel Anbar

A moveable feast:

Once you have traveled somewhere, that place is forever with you. Hemingway said, “If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.”

Today there are innumerable ways to go abroad while being ‘productive’, such as volunteering, teaching, farming, studying or being an au pair. But, simply enjoying and absorbing the culture can make any traveler more of a global citizen; someone who identifies with humanity across borders and nations. To accept and respect a culture allows for a greater insight into the countries’ traditions and a greater international perspective.

“When I talk with students after they come back from studying abroad, I pretty much always notice a new sense of awareness,” said Alex Dibartolomeo, a fourth year Cal Poly student who works in the study abroad offices. After studying abroad in Madrid, he became a USAC ambassador.

Top 5 reasons going abroad can develop your world view:
1. Learn to be spontaneous and flexible, not everything goes as planned when you’re in a foreign environment
2. Appreciate other cultures; become a global citizen
3. Learn to communicate and understand without words
4. Gain spiritual awareness
5. Learn to look at yourself and where you come from with a different eye

Travel as Pilgrimage:

Travel author, Francis Tapon, was inspired by the history of pilgrimages to go on his own journey around the world. Many religious figures are known to have completed treks through the desert in order to attain spiritual clarity. Today Muslims still make pilgrimages to Mecca and there are 30 modern-day Jewish pilgrimage sites.

More recently John Muir and his contemporaries immersed themselves in nature, hiking for months at a time. Some of the most well-known classic American writers like Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald spent extended amounts of time in Europe, searching for inspiration and self realization.

Studying abroad can provide that kind of personal growth experience for students who embrace it. “When I got back, even my mom said I grew up more in the year I spent in France than I had in the other 20,” said Mark Hamer, a microbiologist working towards his Masters at Cal Poly. “Being alone in a foreign country teaches you how to be more of a world citizen and about yourself.”

A Universal Language:

Esrock had a few epiphanies during his round the world journey. One of the most important is that people would rather help you than hurt you. Many people are fearful of travel because they think foreign countries are dangerous. If people never get out of their comfort zones, they will never understand how kind people often are. Body language and facial expressions are universal and can break through language and culture barriers.

While serving in Iraq in 2003, Jesse Kluver was invited to have tea with some of the village elders. “One of the best ways to deal with conflict in communities is to establish good relationships with elders in the community.” Although their was a language barrier, they communicated through facial expressions and built a bond through the act of sharing tradition.

The more a person travels, the closer they will come to understanding themselves and their fellow humans. Travel brings insight through distancing oneself from the norms of everyday life.