Adios, beaches!
Made myself LOL IRL. I’m not actually going anywhere for a while, but I needed a catchy title.
People like to say that travel “changes you,” which sounds dramatic until you realise it’s mostly true. Not in the “I found myself on a mountain” way (though if you do find yourself on a mountain, congratulations), but in small, oddly humbling ways. Travel makes you a better person primarily because it forces you to admit you have no idea what you’re doing.
At home, you are a (mostly) competent adult. You know where the good bread is in the supermarket. You can navigate public transport without accidentally boarding something that ends in a completely different county. You understand the cultural rules of queues, small talk, and which door to push. Then you travel.
Suddenly you’re standing in a train station holding a ticket you don’t fully understand, trying to decipher a departure board that might as well say “good luck, my friend.” You become a person who points politely at pastries and hopes for the best. You say “thank you” with the enthusiasm of someone who only knows one word in the language and is determined to get their money’s worth.
This is good for you.
It’s healthy to remember that the world is very large and that your usual systems for existing do not apply everywhere. Travel is basically a crash course in humility. You learn patience when the bus schedule is mysterious. You learn kindness when someone helps you despite your terrible pronunciation. You learn flexibility when the restaurant you planned to visit is closed and you end up somewhere better anyway.
Also, you walk more. This alone probably makes you morally superior.
Travel expands your empathy in sneaky ways. You see how people live, what they eat, how they greet each other, how they build routines and traditions that feel completely normal to them and completely fascinating to you. It’s hard to stay narrow-minded when you’ve just eaten the best meal of your life in a tiny café run by someone who doesn’t share your language but absolutely shares your enthusiasm for potatoes. (I just really love potatoes.)
You also learn important truths about yourself, such as:
You are capable of navigating an unfamiliar city with only vibes and Google Maps.
You can, in fact, survive eating your tea at 9:30 p.m.
Your suitcase always contains at least three items you will never wear.
You’re almost guaranteed to not shit yourself, but you’ll take 34 extra pairs of drawers to be super-duper safe.
Travel doesn’t magically make you enlightened, of course. You still occasionally get grumpy when you’re hungry or lost or standing in the wrong line at the airport, or when you just miss your Mum. But it does stretch your perspective a little. It reminds you that there are a thousand ways to live a life, and most of them involve good food and people trying their best.
So yes, travel makes you a better person.
Not because you become wiser or more sophisticated (though you might learn to pronounce a cheese correctly), but because it gently knocks you out of your comfortable little routine and says, “Look around. The world is enormous and interesting and full of things you don’t understand yet.”
And I reckon that’s a pretty good way to improve someone.
