This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Winthrop chapter.

Collegiettes, sometimes you just need to get out of your town to figure out who you really are, and what you really want.

Here are 10 reasons why traveling out of the country helps you discover you!

1. It completely takes you out of your comfort zone

New food, different bathrooms, strange money, and possibly totally different language. Getting out of your comfort zone is essential to better learn your boundaries, likes, and dislikes!

2. It gives you a sense of independence you never had before!

Being out of the country and kicking butt doing it gives you confidence you never knew you had.

3. It shows you what kind of people you are attracted to, and what kind of people you’re attracting.

Friends, love interests, and everything else comes from you being completely you. No new friends? Says who?

4. It forces you to really realize what you like to do with your spare time.

Hit the small bakery down the street, shop til you drop, socialize at a bar, eat delicious food, or binge watch Netflix in a hotel with a view. What do you really enjoy doing?

5. Being out of the country makes you go on full survival mode

No wifi, no GPS, no instant anything (unless you have WiFi or a coveted traveling data plan). Operating a hand map is NOT as easy as you would think.

6. Being a part of a new culture forces you to interact and do thing that you may not be used to

Bonus: it teaches you to respect new ideas and behaviors, no matter how strange or foreign they may be to you!

7. It helps you develop a different understanding of managing money.

You have to learn how to use a different currency, navigate different prices, and nothing is like American money. Keeping track of the exchange rate, and how much you are spending, and how much you need, talk about budgeting.

8. It helps you become more open-minded

Being in a different country extends multiple opportunities to eat new things, go new places, and talk to new people that you have never had the opportunity to experience before.

9. Traveling expands your overall thinking process about everything.

Traveling is an open door to viewing everything differently. It gives you new perspective on who and what you actually want to be!

10. It gives you so much power but also makes you feel so vulnerable at the same time.

Yeah, you get to go out on your own and be an adult, but being in a new country by yourself is also so scary and makes you feel vulnerable.

10 Reasons Why You Need To Travel