By Surangya Kaur
Travel is a decadence one should not refuse. If you too are afflicted by wanderlust and often combat strong desires to go some place unseen, tread on waters uncharted, then you shouldn’t stop yourself. Embrace the nomad inside you, don’t be encumbered by the roots of any place, don’t while away your life living in the same home in the same dirty old urban mise-en-scène, wander away my friend. Be a dislodged bird of passage.
Here are 5 reasons why you shouldn’t stop (or you should start) travelling:
1. Quest for something new:
Travel doesn’t necessarily mean packing your bags for a long flight taking you out of the city. Travel could be going anywhere. The underlying motive of travel is discovering something new. And that discovery can be made anywhere: in a painting in your city’s museum, in an ancient inscription on the walls of a historical monument, in the name of a flower in a scenic park, etc.
Every city, town, village, forest, beach, every place that constitutes as a “place” has something to offer. It is your obligation as a traveler to find that particular something which adds to the allure of the place.
It may not seem like a big deal now but everything you learn, every nugget of knowledge you gain adds to your experience called life. And knowledge is never bad, always beneficiary.
2. Culture yourself:
When you visit a new place, mingle with different people, observe their ways of life, you definitely add something to your own. You get to ruminate over their culture, their norms and compare them with your own. You grasp the shortcomings and obsolete characteristics of each. You vow to adopt new ways. This eventually leads to a better life for you. You educate yourself.
3. Detoxify yourself:
Doesn’t it all sometimes get too overwhelming? Too strenuous to lift yourself from bed for another day in the rut? All the day-to-day activities, mundane tasks much too tough to complete?
Voyaging to a new place, a few days spent away from all the hustle will give you just the hiatus you need. A fresh breath of life, a new perspective. It will enthuse you with enough energy to carry on.
All that you see in these places, in the lives of others might result in you having insights into your own, kindle new passions, new talents which all this while might have gone unrealized. And it is never too late to turn things around.
4. Appreciate the beauty of creation:
Visit architectural marvels, admire resplendent paintings, magnificent sculptures, anything and everything which counts as art. Listen to the native music, read the works of local authors. Contemplate the intricacies of it all. Then you’ll begin to appreciate the effort put in achieving all that that seems ordinary, all that we take for granted. You’ll have a greater reverence for it all and for yourself as well. For the work that you do or you will do.
5. See the larger picture:
It is only when you stand in front of the Statue of Liberty or Christ the Redeemer maybe, thronged among the masses, that you speculate over your place in the game of the cosmos. When you see a clear night sky fraught with celestial wonders in a wildlife sanctuary or an island encompassed with the vast ocean all around, that you realize you are just a speck. Insignificant almost. In the words of Richard Feynman, “I, a universe of atoms, an atom in the universe.”
This is not to say that you let go of your life, disregarding it all as futile, no. Each of us plays our part. It is just that you begin to see outside your own close-knit world, realize that materialistic luxuries are not of the utmost importance and mostly the simple pleasures of life are sufficient.
But all this is possible in one trip you’d think. Why do I repeatedly need to invest in travel?
Because no matter how hard we try, we do tend to get lost and tangled in our commitments so much that we forget it all. Travel is that glass of refreshing lemonade which needs to be replenished often and is much required at the end of an exhausting day.
So scribble down your bucket lists, pack your bags and set out on memorable journeys! Explore the world, explore yourself.
