Travel isn’t just a great way to see the world – it’s also a fantastic way to see yourself in a new light. Even if you’ve never traveled before, once you start, you’re bound to see yourself and the world around you differently after a solo trip.
A Boost of Confidence
It takes a lot of effort and determination to travel the world on your own. Completing a trip on your own can do wonders for your self-confidence. It also makes everything you see feel more like an accomplishment. Everyone’s seen The Birth of Venus and The Pyramids, but traveling to Florence or Giza on your own to see these landmark works of art in person? That’s an achievement – and it’s achievements like that which can and should boost your confidence even after you return.
Organizational Skills
Traveling today takes a lot of planning and organization. Depending on where you’re going, you’ll need to book a hotel or Airbnb, figure out local travel, book your flights, get any visa or passport information before you go, and that’s not even counting any of the new potential COVID requirements. Travel forces you to improve your organizational and life management skills, which is one reason it can be so beneficial for students on a gap year, to help them “get things together” before they need to strike out on their own.
Learn About Others
Even in an age as interconnected online and off as ours, we all too often fall back into what’s familiar. With a new wave of nationalistic xenophobia washing over the world, travel is a great way to learn about other cultures and teach them about your own. Places aren’t just “landmarks” anymore – they’re real, beautiful, vulnerable, and in need of our conversation. People aren’t just abstract groups anymore – they’re flesh and blood human beings right in front of you, with their own hopes, dreams, and ideas, occupying their own place in the firmament of dazzling difference that defines the human experience.
Travel is a great way to learn about the world, but it’s just as much about learning about yourself.