Reflecting on the Value of Travel & Self Transformation

Many self-proclaimed wanderlusters are now finding themselves at home, stuck with only their daydreams and memories to quench their thirst for travel and exploration. In this modern era of globalization, the world is now shutting its doors, and countries are closing borders at unprecedented levels. For the past half-century, there have been historic levels of interconnection, trade, tourism, diplomacy, all of which are now nearly screeching to a halt as everyone turns inward to contain, heal, and protect.

No doubt the COVID-19 pandemic will leave a lasting imprint on the fabric of the global order but for the moment that legacy is yet to be seen. At present, we are dealing with the impasse of COVID, and its invisible ability to ground us.

As advocates of intercultural learning and believers that international exploration can serve as a pathway towards self-growth and personal development, it is quite difficult to face this current reality. However, it has also presented us with a beautiful opportunity to slow down, reflect, and think consciously about how we want to move forward.

It has allowed me to look back with a profound sense of gratitude at my own experiences. I’d like to share a few meaningful examples of what travel has meant to me and why I think now, more than ever, it will be important to continue exploring and building bridges.

Enhancing your Perspective

I’ll never forget the first time I saw the Eiffel Tower. I had been studying French since middle school and it was something I could easily imagine, seen dozens of photos of, and generally knew what to expect. Yet, when I saw it for the first time at 17 years old, tagging along on a business trip, I was not prepared for the impact it had on me. Its magnitude, the beauty of its hardness, and simplicity was striking and surprising. The Eiffel Tower literally took my breath away. It was quite surreal to feel quite familiar with something but then realize, upon seeing it, that you really had no concept of it at all. A few years later, when I returned to Paris for a semester abroad during college, those lightbulb moments continued. I tried to soak in as much culture as possible while fumbling through late adolescence, feeling freedom and power through travel that I had never felt before. It was the realization that I was at the beginning of a life that was wholly my own, one that my parents, siblings, or even friends were not part of. It was exhilarating, liberating, and full of potential. It was marvelous and indescribable to realize the agency you have in building your own life and choosing your own adventure.

Pushing Beyond your Present Self

Since that pivotal experience abroad as an undergrad, I leapt at any chance of travel that presented itself. Several years later, I had the opportunity to travel to Uganda with a non-profit. I’d never been to any part of Africa before nor had any basis of Uganda’s history or culture like I had in France.

At the time, I was working as an administrative assistant in a posh interior design firm in Chicago but never really felt challenged, fulfilled, or that I had found my path professionally. My relatively short time in Uganda was nothing short of transformative. I was incredibly moved by the communities we worked with, delighted at my first sighting of an elephant or giraffe in its natural habitat, and overcome by the beauty of the warm red earth beneath my feet.

Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda - 2014

However, I found myself the most changed by the Americans who traveled alongside me. These were incredibly inspiring young people who created their own non-profit because they were passionate about education, about international development, and most importantly: about change. They were younger than me and had big dreams and plans on how they wanted to effect change. It was then that I realized that I needed to push myself beyond my present self, not to settle for what I had assumed was "life in the real world as an adult”. During that time abroad, I realized I needed to go to grad school to pursue my own passions of global change and intercultural connections.

Digging Beneath the Surface

Public Diplomacy Grad Students at US Embassy in Havana, Cuba - 2017

Two years later I found myself in Havana, Cuba doing graduate research on city diplomacy in the newly reopened (to the US at least) country. My fellow grad students and I were on our way to the US Embassy, trying not to get soaked by the salty sea waves angrily crashing onto Havana’s iconic Malecon road while vibrant vintage cars rattled by. We were there to discuss the various facets of diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba since Obama’s historic policy change.

Waves along the Malecon - Havana, Cuba - 2017

During that brief period of warming diplomatic relations, many US tourists flocked to Cuba to experience the vibrant culture. How picturesque and quaint were the classic cars and historic streets of Old Havana? How interesting it was to visit Ernest Hemingway’s favorite restaurants and how gorgeous were the beaches. There was a gritty reality beneath that facade though. There was pain and suffering and realness that most tourists seemed to gloss over, instead, idealizing the ‘frozen in time’ feeling that pervades Old Havana’s historic buildings and vintage cars. And while those cars are a source of pride for Cubans and tourism is a great economic boost to the country, many don’t see that they come at the price of decades of oppression. The crumbling infrastructure has a romantic quality that tourists love to take photos of, while misunderstanding that those crumbling buildings are the fragile and dangerous homes of everyday people who oftentimes lack the basic necessities that we so often take for granted.

My time in Havana was marked by the sticky humidity, which was only cooled down by the easy sea breeze flowing through cracked balconies and gaping holes in the walls of rundown buildings and the intimate conversations had in Paladares, which are ‘restaurants’ set up in the homes of locals known mostly through word of mouth. From a research standpoint, Havana provided an interesting case study in city diplomacy. However, the deeper meaning I took from my time in Cuba was being adept enough to think critically about what I was seeing and experiencing and look more deeply at the complex culture and people living there.

Prior to COVID there was much discussion about responsible/sustainable travel. Many beautiful and historic places around the world are being damaged by the sheer amount of visitors each year. Digital culture has also transformed the ways in which we travel and engage with people, places, and cultures. What do authentic or meaningful experiences really entail? Oftentimes I think many mistake it as trying to capture the perfect Instagram photo doing a yoga pose in front of a Balinese temple or striking a pensive and ethereal pose in the steamy Blue Lagoon in Reykjavik.

While I don’t think you need to ‘go native’ in order to experience a place or culture authentically, I do think you need to be mindful and intentional with how and where you travel. By doing so you will enhance your perspective, push your potential, and dig beneath the surface to uncover more than you ever could have imagined. To me, that is traveling authentically and why it is meaningful and will continue to be so once we are able to venture outward again. Travel is change, adventure, and a million other things, but most importantly it is growth.