Why Travel Is Important

I discover that the world is larger than my little conception of it.

I discover that although the large world is scary, I can survive in it.

It is good to do new things. It forces connections and creates abilities/resiliencies where they would not have been required.

People speak in different cadences everywhere. Their voices are beautiful and expressive. I will never know them all, but they each contain worlds. I must let them go.

It is something to step entirely out of one's life. I don't know for sure if it is good or bad, but it shakes things up.

I realize the important life-skills of finding food, shelter, staying clean, getting enough sleep. I learn to value my meagre possessions, because what I have is necessary. I learn how little I really need to survive.

I learn that courtesy and patience are necessary, as ever, with my fellow-travelers.

I learn the delight of the incidental contact with others in this new world. I value these encounters when they happen. I am nostalgic when they are over. -2003-