When I stepped onto a plane for the first time, I was a teenager flying solo. Not yet in high school, I was excited for the opportunity to venture away from my small hometown in Canada; I was headed to a city in a developing nation and then into the rainforest.
There was nothing normal about any part of my trip. My team carried provisions on a pole, suspended between two people, and hiked through mud that oozed over the top of our boots and down between our toes. Spiders the size of my hand made regular appearances on the mosquito netting under which I slept and river travel meant bailing water from the bottom of a dug-out canoe. Small children touched my milk-colored cheeks in wonder at the palest skin their eyes had seen, and before returning home I had the privilege of enjoying a tribal feast which included peeling the charred green skin from iguana meat.
The bucket list only grew as I went on to visit other cultures and countries and then I met my husband who also has a thirst for adventure. When we had children, the goal was to get them used to travel as soon as possible, and both their passports were stamped by their first birthday. Though we aren’t crossing as many oceans as I dreamed of, we consistently stir up their spirit of wonder and wanderlust. Travel means many things to our family, but above all I want my daughters to know the following:
• The World Is Not To Be Feared. In our world of instant news updates and overdramatized headlines, it is easy to be swallowed by fear and choose to remain in what is familiar (and yes, the mega-resort that caters to our every desire— even if in a remote location— is still within that comfort zone).
The world is a paradox of mammoth and minuscule, brutal and beautiful, secluded and stimulating, and it is ours to discover. We do our children harm by pretending that the atrocities that ravage countries in our modern history are not the same wars that have always been. Absolutely there are places to avoid for good reason, but there is also beauty to be found in almost every place.
• Embrace Differences. What I noticed in the eyes of Panamanian teens was similar to what I saw back home in Canada, and in students around the world ever since. They had insecurities and enormous dreams just as I did, and we all desired love and acceptance, regardless of our nationality, socio-economic background, or religious beliefs.
Rubbing shoulders with individuals of different religions, ethnicities, and nationalities provide opportunities to learn, not just from others, but about ourselves. Travel is then no longer defined as a luxury vacation; it becomes an education. It is not something that we “go” on, but something we experience.
• Be grateful. Electricity, the abundance of food and gender equality were all luxuries I took for granted before that first trip. Returning home to four younger siblings was something that my friends in China would never experience. Nor would the students in Cuba understand the meaning of “travel for pleasure”. The fact that I could go to school, wear pants, be in public without my head covered, and choose whom I wanted to marry, were all realities that many girls would never experience. I returned home cognizant of the many advantages I was afforded, simply because of my nationality.
My hope is for my daughters to experience life beyond their own culture and country, learning to appreciate the extravagances they assume are typical for children the world around. Travel is one of life’s greatest forms of education and my hope is that my daughters will view it as such. Passport stamps, though prized, are the icing on the cake— not the actual reward.
Beyond the wonder of what awaits, there is excitement about what transpires internally every time we experience some place new. Mark Twain summarizes this need to explore by saying, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”
When we bravely step out into the unknown, embrace differences that could divide, and choose humility and gratitude instead of fear, we move past wanderlust and see travel as transformative.