Reasons to travel when you are young

Travel, neh?Save the excuse. Discover. Explore

1. Well, you are still young.

Being young is an advantage because you have the energy, passion and courage to take risk and venture beyond your comfort zone. You have no debts, loans, full-time job, kids etc that are going to be a hinder to your travel plans. And for those with worry about getting a full-time job and earning big bucks to build your career after graduating, you can save those worry for latter because those worries will eventually make its way to you. But, you are not going to get the same freedom and TIME after you move on to the next phrase in life. It would be even harder to take time out and travel with your friends after going separate ways  in the future. So, don't have the regret that you wish you have traveled more during your younger days 50 years down the road. 

P/s: Don't ever be discouraged to travel regardless of your current age as well. As long as you have the will and right mindset, you can begin your journey anytime sooner! :) 

2. Travel: An investment that guarantees no losses.

Putting your savings to the trip, planning your own itinerary, navigating your way around, asking for help even you can't speak the local languages, striking a conversation with the others may not be the familiar to you if you don't travel but it will, if you start your journey now. Even at the planning stage of your journey, you are developing money management skills and organisational skills that you will be needing in your life as an responsible adult. Travel helps to push your limit, learn more about yourselves and your direction in life. You will be maturing with great thoughts and perception through the journey without you even knowing. This is when you know the time, money and throwing aside the worries as a fresh grad will be all worthwhile. 

3. Discovering your future path.

Fresh grads like me are probably still figuring out the job i want and if i am even passionate about the industry that i have my education on. All in all, it's fine to have such thoughts and to feel at lost because it's human nature. Venture abroad to understand yourself, your character and what you are truly passionate about. Be it realizing that you want a job in the humanitarian after experiencing with  the less-privilege or becoming a travel book writer to share your experience. Take the first step to discover about you and you are already on your way to craving your future. 

4. The world is an open book for the open-minded.

Keep an open mind, understand and accept the differences between you and people from all over the world. In the society that we live in currently, there are many conflicts in thoughts and actions that we often realised how we are all human beings who wish to be respected and treated well. How people who are different from you are not weird, just different. 

You are taught the 7 wonders of the world, history of a country and about the world in school and to do things with faith and kindness but experiencing it in real life changes the whole game. As you mature and start understanding about the society or learning about the negativity news of a country, that might cause you to lose some faith. Eventually, you will start experiencing the kindness of strangers, for instance like locals who are willing to walk you to a location even if it's not along their way, and discover that humanity have never disappear, just covered up for us to discover.

5. Appreciating my country, home and everything i have taken for granted.

Being away from your town, families, friends and the surrounding you grew up with for weeks or even months would be tough. You won't be navigating around without a map or have your favorite dishes but that will teach you how privileged you are and the comfort you have grew up with. Let me share about my short story at the next point that have taught me to be more appreciative. 



A short story of my own:

Vietnam & Cambodia: Upon graduating from secondary school, I went on to embarked on a journey to Cambodia and Vietnam to learn about the different cultures, the local way of living and most importantly, their history. It is known that Cambodia went through a 8 years civil war named Cambodian Civil War and Vietnam going through a 30 years war. 

I do remember vividly a local from Cambodia once told me, almost every households have lost a family member to war. It is indeed heartbreaking and even when i visited the local war memorial sites with a local friend, I could tell that he was walking around with a heavy heart. We can learn about the history through the internet or books, but experiencing it changes the whole story. That's when i realized I want to star being a TRAVELER instead of a tourist and travel more to widen my perspective.

Nepal: 2 years later, I received an email regarding a school overseas programme to Nepal and I was over the moon. Nepal have always been on my bucket list since making friends with the Nepalese in school. The friendliness and spirit of the locals makes me feel so welcomed and they were such strong spirit especially after learning that they were never conquered by any country which surprised me (mainly because i came from a region where almost all the countries were conquered in the past) but with all due respect. 


Upon landing at Tribhuvan International Airport, there were no high rise buildings from the airplane window or around the airport. The tour guide explained that buildings are not to be built higher than Dharahara (If i do remember correctly) which is a rather unique fact about Nepal. 

During the first few nights, the electricity went off in the middle of the night for hours and everyone panicked because we have never experienced it back home (that's how pampered i realized we were). There were little street lamps which made it a little harder to walk around at night as we have to make use of our phones and the lights from the shops and homes to navigate our way around. 

One of the programme was to volunteer at an orphanage in which those few hours of interacting with the children was heart-warming. There were DIY necklaces and colouring books prepared for the children in which they gave me their first DIY necklace and named the characters in the colouring books after us, making me realised the expectation that they will think of themselves first was the mindset of a human being who grew up in the city.  As we grow up, competition becomes intense till we often become more self-centered and forgets about the values we were educated on since young. 


Now that I am a fresh grad, I am on a 3 months journey to Korea and will be heading to Japan in a few days before heading home. And i wish you well in your future trips! Feel free to share with me your experience as I believe there are values in every individual that we can learn from.