One of my favorite travel quotes of all time, is by spoken word artist and punk activist, Henry Rollins:
"I beg young people to travel. if you don’t have a passport, get one. take a summer, get a backpack and go to delhi, go to saigon, go to bangkok, go to kenya. have your mind blown. eat interesting food. dig some interesting people. have an adventure. be careful. come back, and you’re going to see your country differently, you’re going to see your president differently, no matter who it is. music, culture, food, water. your showers will become shorter. you’re going to get a sense of what globalization looks like. it’s not what tom friedman writes about; i’m sorry. you’re going to see that global climate change is very real. and that for some people, their day consists of walking 12 miles for four buckets of water. and so there are lessons that you can’t get out of a book that are waiting for you at the other end of that flight. a lot of people — americans and europeans — come back and go, ohhhhh. and the light bulb goes on"
I've read this quote a million times over and nodded in fairly complacent solidarity, that is, until I went to Southeast Asia. While I loved my adventure, I spent so much time thinking, Jesus do I really need this bag?this book? this kindle? these possessions? I don't want to call it a Westernized guilt, but there is something to be said for the tourists who go to foreign countries just to stare at the people that they ignore in their own. There is a certain freedom you feel when you stop worrying about whether you're "doing it right." Did you pack enough, is the hotel four stars, will you get an even tan, did you follow the travel itinerary...etc. In fact, getting lost is one of my favorite things about traveling. I feel comfortable being unaware of what I will find next, it's all about discovery.I met so many interesting people, with amazing lives, varying religions, backgrounds and social or economic statuses. I saw people more resourceful than I could ever dream of being, people living on a dollar or two a day, the same people satisfied with their lives, grateful and happy. It really reaffirmed for me what matters the most and the things that I love and care about. I don't travel just to get a stamp in my passport, I travel to meet people I could never make up in my wildest dreams, I travel to try foods that I never knew existed and I travel to feel something and to know that borders are simply man made things that keep us from realizing how unified we really are in the human experience. Southeast Asia is and will continue to be a defining moment in my life, and I feel so blessed to have been able to make such a journey.
