5 Things Travel Has Taught Me

Last updated on 13 October 2024

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Travel has taught me a lot over the years.

My first overseas trip was when I was 18 months old, and I haven’t stopped moving since. I’ve learnt a lot already, even in my not-too-many years on this planet, and every time I travel I learn something new. There are so many things travel has taught me, and I’m sure I could make a much longer list than this one.

In 2020, when a certain pandemic put travel on hold for a while, it turned out to be a great time to sit back and reflect on what travel had already taught me over the years.

What travel has taught me

1. To be flexible
2. To be organised
3. To try new things
4. It’s taught me about the world
5. It’s taught me about myself

1 | To be flexible

You never quite know what you’re going to get when you visit a new place. Yes, you can make plans and set out a course of action for your day (something I do quite often), but inevitably things don’t quite go the way you plan. And that’s okay.

You learn, over a few trips like this, to be a little flexible and go with the flow (especially if you’re part of a big group trip and you really need to go with the flow!). It might not be perfect, but it’ll make a great story later. And boy do I have some great stories up my sleeves.

2 | To be organised

I’m an organised person, though my organisation tends to be more chaotic than others. But travel taught me to have everything ready to go, visas completed, passports updated, vaccinations jabbed; the whole shebang long before they needed to be. Ticking things off lists is something I live for, and with travel, it pays to be all that more organised.

3 | To try new things

Growing up in a family who had done a lot of travelling before I was around, and who were immersed in so many fantastic cultures already, I was used to eating food from other countries on a weekly basis. But when you cook ‘foreign’ food at home, I think you tend to Westernise it a bit, even if you don’t mean to. While I haven’t eaten anything too weird, I have tried things that I wouldn’t normally, and I’m up for trying anything once.

4 | It’s taught me about the world

There’s nothing quite like stepping into another culture, another city, another country and soaking up everything about the place.

The big difference between reading books on countries, or pinning ‘top 10 tips for travelling to X’ is that you don’t get the whole experience. You can’t hear the sounds, smell the scents, taste the food while you’re a step removed. I may have known about Japanese culture, but I didn’t know it firsthand until I went to Tokyo.

I may have remembered quite a lot about my time when I was very young in Mongolia, but it wasn’t until I went again as an adult that I really felt the culture and the lifestyle.

👉🏻 Didn’t know I lived in Mongolia? Read my posts all about my return to Mongolia in 2018.

5 | It’s taught me about myself

People often say that you return home differently than when you set out. And it’s true.

Every time you travel, you leave a little piece of yourself behind when you return, but you take with you all the experiences you gathered while you were away.

You learn who you are through the things that happen and the way you deal with things. Perhaps you learn that you don’t function that well under pressure, or that you’re superb at reading train systems like the London Underground or better yet, train systems in other languages (I’m looking at you, Japan).

Perhaps you’re great at picking up key phrases and words, but not so great at reading signs. Maybe you’re passionate, but not that patient; laid-back but not structured; willing to try new things … within reason.

You leave a little piece of yourself behind when you return, but you take home everything you gathered while you were away.

That’s one of the joys of travelling; it teaches you something, no matter how small, and if that’s all you take from your trip, then it was all worth it.

That’s what travel has taught me: what have you learnt from your travelling?