The majority of my travel
deals with my daughter’s softball team.
Which consists of traveling to Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri,
California, Arizona, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, and Colorado. For field camps I have traveled to Minnesota,
Wyoming, and Montana. For vacations I
have traveled to Nevada, South Dakota, North Dakota, Arkansas, and Texas. To go pick up a new puppy I have traveled to
Illinois, and Kentucky. I have also
traveled for a fishing trip to Ontario, Canada.
Other reasons I have traveled are MLB games and College Football games.
I believe there are multiple reasons why Amy
Huberman likes to travel and why she believes others should also travel
more. First while traveling abroad you
will exhibit unknown ideas and cultures that will stimulate your mind and
enhance personal growth. You may experience
a sense of personal freedom from the burdens of your normal everyday life. These new experiences will also enlighten you
to what you do and know that is so familiar with you that you will learn to
understand why they are the way they are and possibly appreciate them more.
Other
reasons people should travel is it is actually easier than people think and it
is exciting and adventurous. You can
cause new friendships to happen and with technology the way it is now it is
easier than ever to stay in touch with these new friends when you come back. Traveling gives you the opportunity to be
self-taught and really learn what is going on in the world with your own eyes
and ears. I believe that traveling gives
you the most rewarding thing in life which is experiences all the material
things in the world don’t mean anything you can’t take any of it with you but
you can hold onto those experiences.
From the list of top ten reasons to travel here
are the three that stood out to me. 1) It
teaches you about yourself. Every time I
travel, I learn new experiences I try different foods that I would not normally
try and I do something new that I can not do in my
home state. Then I will find myself on
top of a mountain looking at the peaceful beauty while reflecting on my life. Some of what I just stated relates to my next
choice. 2) Traveling provides you with
unforgettable moments and experiences.
This is true even the most boring of places to most people can have a
serenity to it that I enjoy made even better by the silly things that can
happen at any time when you travel as a family.
Just getting to your destination if it is driving, flying, or whatever
mode of transportation you are using it is a journey of experiences all on its
own even the little things can have unforgettable moments. 3) It provides you stories that you can tell
your children and grandchildren about.
This is true I have along with my friends that I have traveled with have
told my children so many stories about these trips mainly in the U.S. and I
have shared several stories from my time in Canada also. I hope to one day travel abroad and have new
stories to share.
The six reasons that Peterson lists are get out
of your comfort zone, become smarter and more competent, begin in a new place
and be around new people, develop cultural sensitivity, adopt to globalization,
and be immersed in a second language, opportunities to network, and connect and
navigate foreign environments. My only
foreign experience was when I went to Canada. I did meet new people who could speak multiple
languages. And at times I did try to
read some French while I was there and it was a challenge but fun.
A
cultural change I experienced that brought me out of my comfort zone was at the
time I was not old enough to legally buy alcohol in the U.S. but I could
legally purchase it in Canada and that was a little strange to be openly asked
if I would like to buy a drink in a restaurant or diner. With these experiences I can relate a little
bit to the reasons to travel that he listed.
Other reasons to travel would be don’t be so easily persuaded by the
media or other people telling you how awful the world is. Go experience it for yourself and talk to
people you will be so amazed even with my travels in the U.S. I found that to
be the case.
I
have also found that after a long trip I am ready to go home but I am not ready
to get back into my life and deal with all the daily issues that come with
being back home. There is a bit of
mental freedom that comes with traveling.
You get to forget about your home life and put that in the rear-view
mirror for a while and you get to be a different person and that is a really
great feeling that makes you want to travel more. The younger you are able to travel the better
because you are not tied down by life as much.
The little things will make the travel experience even greater those are
the real stories.
According to the CNN article some reasons that
were mentioned were doing something new is scary, the U.S. is a large bountiful
place full of natural wonders and cultures that you don’t need to travel
abroad. If you want to experience a
taste of another cultural there are sections carved out in cities that are
predominantly other heritages that you can enjoy that is cheaper and less time
consuming. The capitalist market is
engraved in our minds so much that Americans do not take meaningful vacations and
feel they need to keep working and earning money. America’s ignorance about foreign places has
led to fear of traveling abroad.
I
also think a major issue is people are still recovering from the economic
crisis of 2008 and they can’t afford to take a trip over seas the financial
costs are too high. For example, in the
article it listed average airfare of $1,177 dollars each. For a family of four that would be a cost of
almost $5,000 just to ride the plane.
That is why traveling abroad seems more like a socio-economic issue than
choosing to be isolated Americans. The
constant negativity in the news about places and Americans at risk in other
countries gets imbedded in our thoughts and then we never really know that a
certain country has turned things around and are having an economic resurgence
like Rwanda for an example.
Another
reason for not wanting to travel abroad would be because most likely you would
have to fly. There is a large number of
people who don’t want to because of cost, time, security hassles, comfort of
the airplanes, and fear of flying. For some the loss of control is the main
reason for not traveling abroad. Your
life is in the hands of two complete strangers at 45,000 ft. in a machine that
defies gravity.
Self-imposed isolation would describe my
mom. She is completely content with
where she is and how she lives. She has
never traveled far and lacks the resources to do so besides that she has no
interest about anything overseas.
I can understand Wallaston’s review of the Long
way Round and Long way Down. The two separate series did have the feel of
a documentary and some of the situations felt like they were scripted. They definitely had technological help and a
large support team. They all made money
off the production of these episodes and it was supposed to be a dream bike
trip. That being said they did have a
lot of troubles and their experiences in the shows were amazing and some of it
was educational. The trip itself was
quite an amazing feat that was a culmination of lots of help, planning, training,
logistical support, history lessons, and some geographical and cultural
background leg work.
The scene where they got invited to stay in a
house of an electronics store owner and more and more people showed up to the
house all bringing food and the table was loaded with different foods by the
time, they began to eat they were amazed.
Then they were blown away when the man comes down stairs and starts
singing for them. This is could be a
cultural process they do when they invite people into their households that
they were not aware of. Then it got
weird when they started pulling out all the guns and I am sure in any country
that would become an awkward situation that I don’t think anyone with a
geographic perspective would know how to handle.
Another
situation where I think a geographic perspective would have helped them understand
what they were experiencing would be when they were invited into a tent by a
family that was very open and welcoming, they shared everything they had which
was not much living in the middle of a vast emptiness. They were quite dismayed to be eating
testicle soup which is probably a staple meal for that family.
Submitted by Cory Lewis on 2/1/19