Twenty Something Contributed ContentIn your twenties, you have a unique ability to enter a new place where you don’t know anyone. Cities are wide-open books for you to write your first impression into the margins. As you travel, you learn more about the world and its geography than you would have learned in a classroom. The small, daily actions of traveling (such as taking a train ride, making a wrong turn, or talking to strangers) are the same kind of actions that shape you in ways you may not realize.
Traveling in your twenties breaks down the ideas you thought were solid. For example, one day you wake up in a bunk bed in a loud hostel, and you are happy. The next day, you eat street noodles off a plastic stool, and you think about what is comfortable. At some point, you realize that “home” is not a specific location. Instead, it is a sense of peace that you carry with you, rather than a place to which you go back.
Your Comfort Zone Will Change Because You Will Grow
As you travel, you find the limits of yourself that you didn’t know existed. You struggle with language barriers. You get lost. You are patient. You also discover that you are much more resourceful than you gave yourself credit for. Along the way, you build pieces of courage that will remain with you long after the trip is over.
Do you notice how curious you become about your surroundings when you are away from home? A single monument can make you want to learn more about history. A single dish can lead you to question more about cultures. You begin to connect the dots of the world in such a way that the way you see your own life back home changes.
You Can Be Wherever You Want to Go and Still Think About Home
At some point during a trip, you will be in a quiet space. This space can be a cool drink at a cool place like SWD restaurant and bar in Bangkok or viewing the skyline of a place you never expected to visit. Suddenly, you are thinking about home. Not because you miss it. Not because you regret going somewhere else. But because you now view home differently.
Traveling gives you a great way to clean the windows through which we view our lives each day. Things we used to consider normal become special. We do not take the familiar routes we have taken for years for granted. We enjoy the rituals we grew up with. We understand our hometowns a bit better. We are more patient with the people in our lives.
Coming Back Home with New Eyes
Perhaps the best part of traveling in your twenties is how it allows you to gain the perspectives you didn’t know you needed. When you come back home, you have slightly different values. You seek experiences over possessions. You listen more intently. You pay attention to details more deliberately.
Travel does not change who you are; it just expands you. Travel gives you a broader understanding of the world and yourself. With each trip, home becomes more about the areas of you that feel solidly grounded and more about the areas of you that are grateful and subtly transformed.