Why Travel? - katelyn lilian

People have asked me why I travel and more specifically why I travel to the places I have.

(turns out, India and China aren’t on everyone’s itinerary)

Often I say it’s a family thing – I’ve grown up that way (anyone who knows my family knows that). But I realized there is more to why.

A few days ago a guy struck up a conversation with me as we walked into the gym.

He had mentioned moving to Minnesota recently, so I asked more about it. He said through a huge smile, that he had come from Zimbabwe to get his MBA (how incredible is that?!).

Naturally, I was intrigued by this so we talked further. Towards the end of the conversation, he asked if I ever wanted to go to Africa. When I told him I had been, but desperately wanted to go back, he stopped in his tracks.

Guys, he was dumbfounded that I actually wanted to go to Africa. He was so proud of where he was from and that I had seen a little taste of it, he was beside himself.

But what was really striking about this conversation was his closing comments, “I find it so interesting that you have traveled to Africa. In the three weeks since I’ve been in the U.S., I have seemed to realize many American’s don’t even have passports – and worse, don’t even want to travel even though they have the means to.”

Talk about disappointment in your home country. Although, I do understand that this isn’t *everyone.*

I just checked and according to the 2018 passport statistics (click HERE for them), there are 137,588,631 valid passports in circulation in the United States. The catch? As of August 2nd, 2019, there are 329,363, 859 people in the United States (click HERE).

Only 41.7% of Americans have a valid/useable passport

This all got me thinking about what travel does and why we do it. And let me tell you, it does a whole lot. But don’t let me fool you, I didn’t always realize it.

As I said, my family loves to travel, I mean loves. My entire house is filled with things that make you want to see the world. My favorite? This sign above our front door.

So you would think that I would have learned long ago why traveling is important, right? Well yes and no. I understood surfacely, but I was lukewarm to it for a long time because it was SO normal for me, I didn’t understand the impact it had.

I honestly don’t think the real impact for me happened until we were in China, Shanghai specifically.

We were meeting a private transfer that was bringing us from the ship to the Great Wall. The guy facilitating all of this was making small talk with us and we found out we were the same age.

He said that he couldn’t go to university because his family couldn’t afford it, but he so desperately wanted to go–almost as much as he wanted to travel. However, the closest he could get was being a travel agent. He had never left his district in China.

The next interaction was with our tour guide at Tieneman Square, again similar age. She too made small talk and was SHOCKED when she learned we were all under 21 at the time. She told us where she was from, you didn’t travel, especially girls. And going to university somewhere that facilitates any activities outside of schoolwork was unheard of.

Now, this is what really hit me, they BOTH said the same phrase: “That is my lifetime dream, to leave China one time or to go to university. You really are living the dream.”

Oh but if you could see their faces. They longed to do the very thing that I was doing. It was then that I realized that was doing and seeing things that some people don’t have the opportunity to do, but worse, that some people CHOOSE not to do.

But that is something I will never understand. Why would you not want to wake up to views like this?

Or hike places like this?

Or eat food like this?

Or meet people like this?

Or see world wonders like these?

So why travel?

Travel because it changes your once narrow perspective into something that never stops growing and evolving. Because trust me, once you get out there, you’ll realize how narrow it once was.

Travel because you’ll realize that there are a million and five things that you don’t understand, but that is the beauty of it because there is always room to grow.

Because you’ll learn that you don’t infact know the best way to do things. Or that you really can survive (and even thrive) without all your ‘must-have’ items.

You’ll learn that the world is HUGE, but when you start meeting its people, it feels connected and intimate.

Because you’ll finally understand that the whole ‘finding yourself’ doesn’t even make sense because you’re never the same person once you leave somewhere.

But most of all, you’ll realize how much more there is to see, people to meet, foods to try, and experiences to be had. And the best part about all of it is that you’ll never stop learning, growing, and changing through all of it.

And isn’t that what it’s all about? Isn’t that what really living is like?

So I beg of you, travel. Do it.

Do it for you. Do it for me. Do it for all those crazy people who won’t. Do it for all those people who can’t. Just do it.

THAT is why we travel.

“You will never be completely at home again, because part of your heart will always be elsewhere. That is the price you pay for the richness of loving and knowing people in more than one place.”

Til next time,

Katelyn