“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” Mark Twain
How right Twain was and is. Sometimes the biggest aha moments require only travel to a new spot in your own community, other times, they require a more dramatic, maybe even a more “eat, pray love” approach to a far off locale. I think what it all boils down to is perspective; where are you going to find a perspective different than yours? Where are your boundaries going to be pushed, whether to try a new food or be surrounded by people who look differently than you? Speak a different language? Celebrate life in a different way?
Besides having the amazing ability to combat all that Twain lists, have you ever met somebody who met the love of their life when stationed abroad and just stayed? Seen a painting in somebody’s home that has been passed down from generation to generation from Great Aunt Soandso’s foray from a small town to a big city art show years ago? Drank tea from an obscure vendor in a Morrocan market? Leaving one’s own little box opens one up to literally a world of possibilities and opportunities in backyards near and far, When we travel–and I don’t mean just getting on a plane– it’s safe to say we always leave a piece of us behind and always take a piece of where we traveled back home with us. Travel helps us grow, inspires us, enriches us, tires us out, fulfills us, leaves us hopefully staying curious, always looking for the next adventure–from a cooking class at that restaurant you bookmarked on Instagram to the beaches in Normandy you read about in history class, dreaming of visiting one day.
In this section of The Modern Bee, we’ll travel near and far. We’ll explore, we’ll discover, we’ll learn, we’ll invigorate…and all without the jetlag.
-Michaela
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