Move to Live Life
People evolve as they move around. Moving around can be expressed in many ways, but travelling is one way that we could move to evolve. Through travelling, we can evolve intellectually, emotionally, and eventually grow as a person. In my opinion, travelling is: the butterfly excitement on my chest whenever I land a foot in an airport; the knowledge that I capture whenever I meet someone new; the self-reflection that I do while  travelling and finally the happiness that overpowers all my emotions.

Living in a homogenous country where everyone has the same ethnicity, culture, color, and religion, expanding your understanding of the world isn’t easy. And basically, my world was my country. I didn’t know how it felt like to meet someone from Asia, Europe or any other country whatsoever. It wasn’t that long ago that I thought that everyone with small eyes was from China. The first time that my world started to expand was the first time that I landed my feet on an airport. One of the airports that blew my mind away was Dubai International Airport, and I remember meeting people from Japan, South Africa, and from all over the world. Those few hours in the airport widen my grasp of my knowledge on the world, and it was those hours that I had my first epiphany on travelling. The epiphany that travelling is far more educational than textbooks, and that practical presence expands your knowledge in a deeper level than any textbook does.

     Travelling allows me to meet with different people from different ethnicities, backgrounds, and cultures. This maybe that most exciting fact about travelling because how we interact with people around us reflects who we are.Travelling also sanctions me to discover my true identity, the identity that embodies me. More importantly, it also teaches me the many identities that people personify, and ultimately educates me about their flaws and strengths. Through these lenses, I encounter many versions of myself. It’s our decision which version we identify with and which version we like people to see it. At the end, it’s these experiences that bring out our different versions, and it’s not every day that we experience something extravagant in our mundane day routine. It’s through these experiences of meeting people that we develop and grow as a person. Why do you think adults receive more responsibilities than adolescent? It’s because adults have more experiences, and they lived longer. Unfortunately, experiences don’t come without movements. For example, if you raise someone in an isolated house without any interactions with humans and nowhere to go, that person would turn out more like an animal than human. No one desires to become an animal, and I for sure don’t want to miss the fun and the excitement that life has to offer as human. To  not turn out like animals, the humane thing to do is to move to seize all the experiences that would eventually make-up who we are. Henry David says, “Every sunset which I witness inspires me with the desire to go to a West as distant and as fair as that into which the sun goes down” in his essay, “Walking”, to express his inspiration to walk and move.

Travelling has a way of making us think and reflect on ourselves. Most of us live in structured day-to-day schedules whether we are working or studying, and we don’t usually ponder on ourselves. We get stressed from deadlines, exams, and work that we don’t take a second to relax and enjoy the moment. One of the only times that I really self-reflect is when my head is leaning against a window of a car or plane. I usually listen to music and stare down the window to see the clouds and trees reasoning through actions that I have taken and setting goals for myself. These moments allow me to ease up my stresses, and freshen-up every time I do it.

Most importantly, travelling gives me the happiness that overpowers all of my emotions. It doesn’t matter if I’m stressed, angry, or sad, all these emotions trample down when this sudden, and beautiful feeling of happiness emerge. Doing something for the first time or seeing cool stuff for the first time could trigger this happiness.  For example, I travelled to Jordan last term, and there were a lot moments where I just felt happiness. These moments were the times Jordan that I was trying new things like snorkelling, riding a camel, horse, and a boat for the first time. During these moments, I feel free and I feel like I can do anything. It is that sense of feeling freedom that brings out the best version of me.

Travelling makes me alive, free, and empowered. I hope to do more travelling to find my true identity and find the best version of myself before my time in this precious world end.