Travel: A Multi-Faceted Experience

Whether one travels for leisure or business, I believe there is a necessity to travel. The world is globalizing and becoming more connected. Travel provides a worldly view that is outside the comfort zone of most people. One can immerse themselves in other cultures and experience new cuisines and sights. These are the exciting aspects of travel. The freedom of travel allows a person to take focus out of their domestic busyness and provide them with a chance to explore their person. The person can be defined as “an individual characterized by a preference.” These “preferences” ground us but also box us. We need to explore past our preferences and understand what it means to live out of comfort.

my personal cork board map

Here are my top five reasons to travel:

Language

Traveling encourages multilingualism. Spanish, Chinese, French, and other dominating languages are spoken along with English. Due to my parents’ enthusiasm to travel, I was raised trilingual, speaking Tagalog, Spanish and English throughout my childhood. Now I am studying French and Japanese, in hopes of visiting those states without the Western expectation that everyone speaks English.

Family

Speaking for my family, Filipinos are very family-oriented in that sense that cousins, uncles, aunts, and honorary family are quite close-knit. Although my family is dispersed throughout the United States, Australia, Great Britain, Singapore, Qatar, Japan and the Philippines, we remain as one of the oldest standing clans.

I traveled back home to the Philippines this past summer after being gone for nearly 10 years. At our family reunion, over 100 living members of my family came and discussed futures of traveling to see them.

For me, travel is part of my family and allows me to keep the connections within my clan.

Culture

I’ve visited nearly 10 countries now and the variety in cultures was extraordinary. Different countries placed a variety of meaning on different objects. In the Philippines, there’s an emphasis on family and the culture revolved around the clan. In Singapore, the culture was highly respectful of nature. Litter was a fine that could be upwards $5,000. In Italy, the culture was fashion forward and seemingly cigarette friendly.

Global Friends

One of the things I value most is the connections I make with people. I met a wonderful array of people in my travels. Two people I’ll focus on is Lyanne of Norway and Angel of the Great Britain. Our connection was a result of having Filipino roots and being raised in the Western world. They understood the duality of having two cultural identities.

Food

Who doesn’t love food?!

This is probably one of the best reasons to travel. It is safe to assume that different countries have different sense of tastes. In the Philippines, most dishes were a type of stew with a lot of seafood incorporated. Italian food was more savory and pasta-based. Singaporean food was a mix of Malay and Thai, emphasizing nuttiness.

In conclusion, traveling is a multi-faceted experience that enables a person to be more globally attuned. I am continuing my travels this December, starting with Germany, followed by a Study Abroad in Spain and Great Britain.