HOW TRAVEL CHANGES YOU || guest post

when they say travel changes a person, they aren’t kidding. there’s something about travelling that changes your perspective, your approach, your mindsets, and your understanding. when you wander around a city where you don’t know the language, where you’re a complete fool in regards to local etiquette, where you have no idea where you’re going, or where you rely on the kindness of others to get you somewhere, you find yourself being humbled by the minute. nothing quite compares to the feeling of complete inadequacy, it’s a feeling that I know all too well (I feel it in my own country, never mind a foreign one!) and would hate to not feel it from time to time. we don’t know everything, we’re not experts, we’re not number one, and as we should expect, we’re going to get things wrong! sitting right next to humility on the travel-changes-you-train (I came up with that myself) is perspective. when you travel and see other countries, other cultures, other people, and other problems that other countries or people face, we begin to realise how small your own problems are and how others face the same (and often much worse) problems as you! suddenly our problems are so much smaller and the dramas we’re facing at home don’t look so overwhelming. how does an argument with our co-workers compare to the poverty faced in so many countries? how does the drama of moving house compare to all the people who travel constantly and don’t even own one? how does the stress of not knowing what’s next compare to unknowns you have to face while travelling from country to country (flights delayed, trains cancelled, getting lost, not knowing a language)? perspective? travel will give you bucket loads of it! sandwiched in the middle of humility and perspective, is the other thing that travel gives you (how super generous is travel? if it were a person, I’d marry it). an open mind. nothing is more disagreeable than a person who refuses to allow people and circumstances and places to change them! I’m not saying we shouldn’t stand by our beliefs or that we should change who we are to please people, but it’s more about the attitude of flexibility and being willing to be wrong. we’re not the only people in the world to have seen the world or lived a certain lifestyle or tasted a hundred and one foods or owned a stressful business or had a hard life. other people have experienced different things and they might just know more about something than we do (I know right. shock of the year!)! just because they don’t own a TV or they move house a lot or they eat cross-legged on the floor or their restrooms are unusual, it doesn’t mean they’re bad or stupid or something we should stay away from. people in different cultures live all kinds of different ways, but that’s exactly what makes it unique and wonderful and beautiful.

travel makes you realise that you’re small, kinda ridiculous, crazy unique and in need of much change. so, travel? I’d say it definitely changes you. coz it sure as heck changed me.

hey, I'm jess! twenty-one year old social media manager and international photographer living in england. world explorer. briwi (british kiwi). coffee addict. probably wearing pjs right now. oddity extraordinaire. eater of sour candy. blueberry and grape monster. queen of laughter and 80 years old at heart. come say hi at www.jessmcghie.com or on instagram @missjessy12!