Traveling is one the best experiences you can gain from life. I have been lucky enough to travel to countries in Europe and see some of the most beautiful cities and scenery in the world. Experiencing knew places and cultures is exciting but it can also open your eyes and show you that you lived a very sheltered life. Being in Italy this past summer has shown me exactly that. Not every country in the world has the security and protection that we as Americans have. Many countries in Europe have been struck with ISIS attacks and struggle with their national defense to protect all their citizens while America has a more reliable system. Sometimes it’s hard to appreciate the security provided in the United States when it’s never taken away from you. Coming home from European countries I now have a greater appreciation for our country and the way we live. This past summer my family and I spent a week traveling through southern Europe from Germany to Italy and finally Switzerland. Stepping off the plane into the Frankfurt airport I was already experiencing something new. Running on no sleep because of the flight I blurred out the sound of harsh aggressive German language. Immediately I felt out of place speaking English as my only language and not being able to understand the announcements or signs in the airport. After spending four hours on additional flights and train rides we arrived at our hotel, a safe haven for me. Adjusting to my new surroundings was exhausting and only
Transitions are never an easy thing to conquer. It is often hard and stressful to cope with changes to one’s surrounding, but in the cases in which one manages to conquer this obstacle, elevation of knowledge and experience are great results gained from this achievement. I originally came from Africa and recently moved to the United States to join my mother and my step father. This great change in the things I had become accustomed to in my daily life was not easy, furthermore taking into account the fact that I had never experienced a transition so little as shifting from one residence to another.
One thing was certain - I could count on was the advice of my family. Coming from a closely knit community, family support was a surety. They provided the support needed to my many cousins who embarked on this journey before me. No matter what doors being a Hamptonian was about to open, I could never forget them. Their sheer determination to see me succeed at anything I put my mind to provided me with enough motivation for the mission.
Opportunity to see life from a different perspective - We tend to associate with people who are like us in some way or the other. Be it the colleague who enjoys yoga or the neighbor who has a mortgage to pay like you do, we often share our lives with those people who can we most relate to and that limits our understanding of life. Travel gives you a chance to see places and cultures that you could have never imagined existed, let a fellow traveler pour his heart out to you even if you can barely understand his language, relish meals that you don't know names of and in the overall scheme of things understand the pleasures and pains of people that you don't otherwise come across. No amount of reading or watching world cinema can give you a different take on life the way travel does. And who knows, maybe its a life you feel you belong to than your life back
In the months, weeks, and eventually days leading up to my flight to Germany the panic was gnawing away at me. Despite the fact that this wasn’t the first time I was venturing out without my parents or even my first time on a plane, it was my first time for a myriad of other experiences in my life. My first international adventure, my first time living with a family that wasn’t my own, and my first time being surrounded by people speaking a different language; all of which began with a simple decision to cross the threshold between the jet bridge and the plane.
Almost a decade has passed and yet, the daunting feeling of stepping off the plane, into the unknown remained. Thoughts rushed through my naïve mind, as the brisk breeze brushed my face.Where am I?Why am I here? Racing through the airport, I was overwhelmed as people paced past me, my mind filled with curiosity and my heart beating louder than a drum. Everything was new, the silence, the purity, the beauty.This new country seemed unrealistic to me, it felt like I was in a dream as I was introduced tonew things. Aspects I couldn’t understand as a little girl were all thrown at me in an instant, skin colours that I didn’t think existed, a new culture, and a new language which sounded like drivel. I slowly began to realize that this wasn’t a dream,
The undeniable expansion of Western European travelers came with a toll that has stamped history books with pages of inhumane and unfathomable treatment of people. The slave ship saw the demise of many millions of people but for a few, a re-birth. The slave trade itself saw the destruction of not only families but of the individual human; their mind, body and spirit. The art of destroying the human starts at the root of which they would be most bound to, this being their family. The slave ship and its crew perfected the art of the destruction of the ‘kin’, also known as ones’ familial relations. With the destruction of kinship, a new type of kin was needed, otherwise the enslaved human would find their life meaningless. This thus sprouting
The only foreign country I have even been to is Canada. And sure, Canada is great. I love Canada. Without Canada we would not have Canadian bacon, maple syrup, or teen pop sensation Justin Bieber, but it is not much different from America. I honestly would not have known I was in another country if it were not for the Canadian flags hanging outside of people’s houses where the American flags usually go. Of course it is an exciting experience to cross an invisible boundary to another part of the world, but the excitement is equal to that which I have jumping from North Carolina to South Carolina when visiting Carowinds, or driving past the big green “Welcome to Virginia” sign on the highway. The Earth is full of interesting, and exciting people, and places that I could learn a multitude of new information from. I know that there is a whole world of culture and perspective that I am missing out on. If I were to take a semester of study abroad as a part of the International Honors Program at Lloyd International Honors College I would learn more about who I am as a person and what I want to do with my life, and be inspired to learn more and push myself to better schoolwork and success at UNCG.
I have been fortunate enough to have been given the opportunity to travel a handful of times now and having just got back from a three week trip to Iraq -I can assure you the experiences that traveling unfolds are life changing!
Despite the unease of traveling on my own, I managed to explore the many wonders that Europe holds within its
Traveling, in general, makes people healthier. Occasional travelers report lower stress levels and lower risks of heart attacks. These benefits even stay awhile after the trip has ended. According to Larry Alton, “traveling has been scientifically proven to lower stress levels.” (NBC News) This is because traveling is like taking a break from one’s hectic life. One gets to think about themselves and relax. People feel less anxious and tend to forget about problems that usually bother them. In a way, they disconnect from their busy lives.
Traveling to places like Sweden, Scotland, France, and England also opened my eyes to a world of possibilities. I saw that there was so much more out there besides the small bubble I lived in. It was one one thing to read about a bigger world, and quite another to actually witness it in
Riding approximately 1,640 miles on January of 2005 to a total new country was definitely life changing. The country I was traveling to would be my home for the next 10 years. “Miren toda la nieve!” (Look at all the snow) my mom enthusiastically shouted as we arrived in the state of Minnesota. Coming from a desert climate to a place full of snow were two very different things. Seeing very tall buildings and rivers with bridges was as I may recall - ethereal. The slippery road that we’d encountered was a visual and aural adventure to my siblings and I, meanwhile our parents drove in fear. As we quickly fell in love with America, the bittersweet reality that we would have to learn English - a total new tongue I never heard of - settled upon the
Yes to some people who haven't traveled it sounds crazy and they would ask “You want to lose yourself?” My answer is yes, yes I do. I want to engage in those conversations of a lifetime with my friends, turned to family, about the castles of Ireland, I want to get lost in the smallest town but know it's fine because there's a nice elder man in his shop that's willing to help us back. All while leaving pieces of me behind, because it's changing me for the better. Being 15 and having been schooled for over half my life my head is stuffed full of knowledge, but this knowledge is special, and only those who travel know what I mean. It's a knowledge that's not possibly enough to capture in stories, and pictures. A new grasp on life that gets me excited to go home to my family and friends and share my experience and help them to travel and broaden their own knowledge. But I don't want to stop there, I want to share my adventures and knowledge with the girl I babysit down the street, the nice customer at my work, future students looking into traveling with TAPS or by
Once traveling to the New World, European travelers were mesmerized by the animals who inhabited the land, because these travelers have never set forth their eyes upon them. Around this time period, animals weren’t known to travel with European travelers because they couldn’t survive the journey, so only drawing of theses said creatures were the only images they could analyze. Due to the lack of knowledge and the lack of live experience, the only way Europeans could characterize these creatures was by interpreting images.
When I was younger I started to really look into traveling. I started watching videos of amazing places all over the world. I watched videos of places like Madrid, Spain, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Bangkok, Thailand, and Rome, Italy. I started to voice my opinions to my family and they really supported me. Now, I have a Bucket List of the places I would list to go, and I can't wait to travel to those 5 places.