Why travel is important

Nathan Wu’s winning piece for Owner Direct Vacation Rentals Study Away Scholarship essay contest.

You’re in Bora Bora, sleeping in the famous, stunning huts of the Four Seasons Resort. You hear the melodious chirping of love from the Canary birds which happens to be your morning call. As your feet step out of the hut, the fragrance of wildflowers and ferns place you in a harmonious and placid state of mind. You then feel the wind caress your cheeks and taste the salty mist from the ocean waves. Below your feet, you see a vibrant-coloured school of fish swimming in a — “Wake up!” shouts your boss or teacher. You snap out of your daze and realize that you’re not in Bora Bora, but your mundane office or classroom. Every day, you dream about boarding a plane and landing in a new country on the other side of the world, but don’t know if you should. Maybe you’ll be convinced after reading this.

Traveling gives one an opportunity to obtain the relaxation your body and mind desperately needs, create some extraordinary memories, and to be educated through eye-opening experiences.

Traveling can be very therapeutic for someone who is suffering from stress and anxiety. In our current lives, teenagers and adults are overloaded with countless worries. Unfortunately, our stresses and anxieties often return, but that is when a short-term escape route can be one’s lifeline. Traveling is your short-term escape route. Traveling takes your mind off the very worries that plague your mental and physical health and redirects the mind towards more positive thoughts. Traveling also delivers the freedom that one yearns for, such as sleeping in, staying up late, and doing things that one could not do regularly. Fleeing away from life’s many concerns and simply enjoying the moment can make a colossal difference. For those that need to wind down, traveling is the answer.

The cherished memories from a vacation can instantaneously light up a smile on one’s face. Traveling is a time when one creates the most memorable experiences that will live on through generations as stories. The best memories come from outside of one’s “bubble” or everyday life, and where better to be outside of your “bubble” than in a new environment with new people. These memories may be about family, friends, a significant other, a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon, or eating pizza in Italy. Memories are your identity, your life experiences; they are how you view the world. Traveling creates unforgettable moments that make it possible for one to relive marvelous experiences over and over again.

Traveling is the finest way of teaching as one is able to learn through experience. The old proverb, “experience is the best teacher” explains this concept perfectly. When sightseeing, one is learning by experience compared to someone who is reading off a humdrum textbook and learning from there. Albert Einstein once said, “All true learning is experience, everything else is just information.” In an experiential situation, one can feel the stone used to build The Coliseum rather than reading about the material used or one can see the tremendous power of Niagara Falls rather than mathematically calculating the force. When an individual travels, he/she is learning about the culture, history, geography and so much more. Learning by experience also keeps the person engaged, which results in better information retention. In an article published by New Horizons in Learning, the authors point out that, “We learn ten percent of what we read, fifteen percent of what we hear, but eighty percent of what we experience.” Education goes beyond academics; it’s also about developing one’s being. When you travel alone, one learns responsibility and independence. By going on a single trip, one can already become that much wiser in knowledge and as a person. Learning from experience is simply the most successful way of learning.

One should travel for the benefit of relaxation, making precious memories, and being educated experientially. Individuals in our day and age must slow their lives down and relish the beauty of life instead of always creating such stressful environments for themselves. As for the amazing memories, one should make the most of each and every moment to create a life that is rich and abundant in joy. Lastly, you will learn an incredible amount through various experiences that will surely mold you into a more cultivated and well-rounded individual.

Feeling convinced? If so, you better get going, your plane is about to depart for Bora Bora!