Did Traveling Change Me?
Did traveling change me? Of course. But you may be surprised about some of the ways how:
I’m braver.
Jumping out of a plane at 14,000 feet? Check. Moving to a town where I know no one? No problem. I’ve done loads of things many people would consider scary in the past year, bring it on.
I give less of a f*ck.
Before I went away I felt like the littlest dumbest things mattered so much more to me. Stupid things like if my shoes matched the rest of my outfit, or if my shirt was stained, or what time exactly we eat dinner. Now those things seem silly.
Things seem possible.
Driving 6 hours in a day just to see a random landmark or go for a walk? Sign me up! Booking a flight that leaves at 4am… why not.
I want to walk everywhere.
Ok so for an entire YEAR I relied on walking, biking or taking public transportation from place to place. I certainly didn’t let not having a car stop me from doing whatever it was that I wanted to do. I now feel like it’s absolutely ridiculous to drive to some of the places I would always drive to last year before I went traveling. If it’s not snowing or raining and the place you want to go is under 2 miles away… why the heck wouldn’t you walk?
I’m not afraid to ask.
You know what they say: You don’t get if you don’t ask. Lewis and I have figured out how very very true that is this year. People in general want to be helpful., they want to be needed they want to seem like they’re important enough to dole things out to other people. If it’s an upgrade on an airplane seat you want you’re literally not going to get it unless you ask for it, and what’s the worst that’s going to happen to you if you do ask? They’ll say no and you’ll be in the same seat you were going to have anyway. Want a better price on something, JUST ASK. Need a ride home from work? It’s not going to do any harm asking your coworker. Sometimes you need to let people help you and sometimes you need to be resourceful.
I embrace new opportunities.
Traveling presented me with so many opportunities to try new things. Some things I loved and some things I wasn’t a huge fan of. But I never would have known if I hadn’t tried! I promised myself when I left for Australia that I would say yes to any new thing that came my way at least once. One of my funniest/scariest memories is how on one of the first days in Sydney I attended a reptile show and the guy asked the audience if anyone wanted to hold this gigantic cobra he had with him. I totally did not want to hold the cobra but it was day four and I wasn’t about to break my promise that soon into the trip. I volunteered and long story short that cobra decided to get wayyyy too up close and personal and ended up making a lunge… INSIDE MY OPEN MOUTH. Terrible. But, made for a great story and funny photo.
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