-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	What's the Point of Traveling? \| Tynan \| Life Outside the Box
Date:	Fri, 22 Nov 2013 18:50:07 -0500
From:	Tynan <newsletter@tynan.net>
To:	stevescott@techacq.com

What's the Point of Traveling?

[ Ack.. no photo because the boat is really rocking, which wrecks the internet. Sorry]

A few days ago reader "jd" had a great suggestion for a post: what's the point of traveling? Seeing that I'm at the end of a long series of trips, it's seems to me that it's a perfect time for a post like that. Like anything, people travel for a whole host of reasons ranging from relieving stress to escaping the law. I can't speak to all of those reasons, so I'll share my own.

I began really traveling due to panic, which may not have been the best reason to go. I had always thought of myself as the type of person who would travel the world, but at twenty-six, I had gone to only a handful of countries, and had never even been to Europe. Realizing that other people my age were traveling a lot, and I wasn't, I sold everything and left with my friend Todd.

That first trip lasted nine months and fundamentally changed how I thought of travel. I set out in search of adventure and the title of "person who travels", but I got a lot more out of it.

When you stay in your home country, it's easy to completely avoid thinking of life beyond its borders. The way things were in America, I figured, was pretty much the way they were everywhere. Typical vacation travel also reinforces this view, because it hides the grit of every destination and serves up a sanitized version that largely reflects the country from which the vacationers came. In the worst cases, only a small injection of caricatured culture makes its way through the walls of the resort.

Real travel exposes the traveler to the details of life that compose the atmosphere of that country. Through that experience, one can begin to understand what life is actually like for the residents. You learn not only how they think and act differently, but why.

To see life from these different perspectives is to see the world in three dimensions. A contrast is provided against how you've always thought about and done things, which gives you the opportunity to examine those things.

Apart from gaining a deeper subconscious understanding of how the world works, you also learn a lot about yourself through travel. Because you are constantly dealing with new situations that you've never dealt with before, you learn to rely on yourself. Almost everybody learns that they're more capable than they thought they were, and through that process learns that the rest of the world isn't as intimidating as it might seem.

The great thing about traveling is that if you're diligent about it, you can get all of those benefits while still being just about as productive as you were before. The gains come in the background as everyday routines are replaced with novel experiences. A trip to the supermarket takes the same amount of time, but reveals things about the country you're in, and isn't done on autopilot like back home.

These benefits of travel can be found in trips of any length, but are only really forced upon you during long trips. That's why when people begin traveling, I recommend spending a lot of time in each country. A night or two in a city and you can book a hotel, eat in "western style" restaurants, see a tourist site or two, and then head home. If you're somewhere for a month, on the other hand, you'll probably be forced to branch out.

Once you're a more seasoned traveler, you get better at gaining that same perspective during shorter trips. Longer trips still yield more depth, but your travel style will shift away from typical tourist traps and the emotional safety of experiences that mirror home.

Traveling is one of the single most powerful ways to build perspective, confidence, and self-reliance. It's also a lot of fun, and conducive to getting work done at the same time. Motivations will vary from person to person, but to me, those factors make up the point of traveling.

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Photo is live scorpions on a stick, sold in Beijing. I'll admit that I didn't "live like the locals" enough to eat them.

Back in the US tomorrow, heading to D.C. to see my family for Thanksgiving!

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