Travel is the Best Education

Sydney J. Harris said "The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows", and travel being the best education, provides a window to know the world we live in, better. Following the trend of Vocal for Local, let's look at an idiom in the dialect of Kannada "ದೇಶ ಸುತ್ತು ಕೋಶ ಓದು". It means you gather more when you travel & read. I believe travel can impart knowledge and experience that one cannot get at a university, you need to get out there, experience it all yourself.

Why I think, travel is a great teacher - think about it, when we plan a trip we do a lot of research on the destination, seek permission from parents (sales), convince our friends (sales and negotiation), calculating the budget, designing the itinerary, forecasting the hazards, considering the do’s and don't, booking the tickets and so on and none of these are taught to any of us at school and college. We learn this by ourselves because the entire idea is so exciting that we are willing to go to any extent to make it work and that means learning new things or even throwing ourselves out of our comfort zones.

Moving further is the execution stage. The journeys look seamless if planned well, although comes along their own set of shortcomings. Sometimes it’s the journey that teaches you more than a destination. During your travel there are cross-cultural interactions that teaches you to be social, helps to stay updated with current affairs, there's exchange of knowledge, enhances presence of mind, boosts self-confidence, fills you with new perspective, develops empathy, exposure to new culture and practices, and you become a responsible traveler.

On reaching the destination, you explore the exuberance of the place, discover local lifestyle, learn about the roots and heritage of the place, embrace the serenity of the destination, and it all boils down to learning valuable lessons of life.

Travel fills you up with life in all its colors and you're reborn as a better person after every journey. ’You always glow through what you go through’ so the experiences are of immense value, they stay along throughout. It’s said that “You age not by years, but by stories", acting on that the travel stories become the guiding path for many. So share your travel experiences as much as you can, as long as you can, to motivate and to educate.