I just saw on Facebook that a former student and her husband have decided that the money they're saving will be used for a 2 year period of travel instead of a house and car to start off their early married years. In this economy, some might see that as a foolish choice, but I simultaneously jump up and down and applaud their boldness. I think that taking such chances will result in benefits they can't even imagine now. Travel enriches, expands and changes us in ways both expected and unexpected and is like a treasure chest that holds so many jewels that we can lovingly pick up and examine over and over without any fear of theft.
I remember when I was in college (oh so long ago!) that one of my deepest desires was to see Europe, and especially France because I had studied that language in high school and just loved it. But there was no money for extra trips like that and then I was accepted into medical school. By the end of the first semester, I knew with certainty that I did not want to be a physician (my squeamishness just could not be stamped out) and I settled into a year-long lab tech position with a pharmacology professor who happened to be Armenian.
In that year of organic synthesis heaven, I worked with an Egyptian post-doc and a Chinese (Hong Kong) doctoral student. There were only three of us in a small lab, and our conversations were quite eye-opening to me. Just by virtue of their backgrounds, they of course had world-views that were unique to them and intriguing to me. When I expressed my condolences to Sami over the assassination of Anwar Sadat, he very curtly informed me that domestically, Sadat had not been that popular; he was just loved by Western foreigners for opening diplomatic relations with Israel. Then there was the perspective of Chou's visiting parents who thought New York City was quite parochial compared to the hustle-bustle, high-density population that was/is Hong Kong. When they arrived in Oklahoma City, they felt like it was almost pastoral!
Because I really had no plans after med school, I decided to save my money and fulfill my dream of travel to Europe. By the time I actually left for my two month back-packing adventure, I had met my future husband who had earned his Ph.D. at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow and had many friends in and around London, Glasgow and Leicester so I never stayed in hotels while in the UK. I bought a travel journal before I left and completely filled the 100+ pages by the time I had returned. Many of the entries, as I look back at them, didn't have any stunning revelations or epiphanies but were instead filled with observations of just how different the quotidian things were 'over there'. Years later, when I traveled to India, I brought a similar journal and filled about that many pages in three weeks instead of two months! India was either just that different or my skills at observing were more finely honed (hint: India was that different and I was enchanted by all of it).
The common thread that ran through both those journals and journeys, however, was that the differences I saw allowed me to see my own country (and life) through a completely different lens and to question why we do some of the things we do (like having a 50 gallon tank of hot water just waiting to be used, and reheating it when it's not used quickly enough or why students here sometimes literally toss away the marvelous chances they've been given). I also felt more intensely alive while traveling; everything was an adventure, and I do mean everything (I have very fond memories of a French waitress in the port of Calais, looking simultaneously disgusted and contemptuous, teaching me how to chaussez de l'eau in the WC!). I think it's that feeling of intensely, mindfully experiencing every moment of the day in a foreign land that is so addicting. It's the memory of that feeling that makes me so strongly encourage others to travel as well.
We always regret what we didn't do more than what we did (and sayings don't get to be cliches unless they have a bit of truth about them). One of Stevie's (my former chemistry student) friends commented, "Oh! That sounds like fun, but be safe!" Pish posh. Safe. Be bold! Cast off the bowlines and leave the shore of safety (and boredom) far, far behind. You'll never regret it. I never have.
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