Why I Love to Travel and Why You Should too

“Adventure is out there!” – Ellie Fredrickson from Up.

First off – Traveling is so much fun! Not only do you get to experience new sights and sounds, but you get to step in the shoes of a different culture. You get to taste new foods, learn new words from another language, you get to smell new things, see new things, and so much more! The feeling of being in another place is out of this world, especially in another country. I went to Taiwan on a mission trip when I was seventeen. It felt like being on another planet. It was such an honor to be able to learn and become a part of a different culture than the one we have here in the United States. 

Their food was absolutely amazing – no greasy foods whatsoever! That was my favorite part. Aside from making new friends. I was in a college city kind of like Ruston that had a big variety of countries due to lots of foreign exchange programs. I met people from Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, China, Australia, Canada, and Japan. All in Taiwan (which is a really small island. I think everyone needs and deserves the opportunity to have new experiences. When you do, you can ask yourself “why do they say this?” “What is their main food?” “Why are they so nice?” “Why do they think that?”. While out for lunch one day, my new friends took me to a nearby island by a ferry and we went to a temple, the beach, and a food market. All in one trip!

Not only is traveling fun, but it’s also great for your health. NBC News says that traveling makes you healthy, relieves stress, enhances your creativity, boosts happiness and satisfaction, and lowers the risk of depression. To read more on the hows and whys, you can go to https://www.nbcnews.com/better/wellness/5-scientifically-proven-health-benefits-traveling-abroad-n759631. In addition to your body health, traveling helps your mental health by allowing you to broaden your ways of thinking. Different people groups do and act in different ways. One thing for sure that’s different in Taiwan is that friends of all ages hold hands when walking together (not just in middle school). Another crazy thing to me about Taiwan is how bold people’s kindness and selflessness is. If there were no seats left and you go to sit on the floor, they would jump up and give you their seat. I was always so flattered and warm-hearted to them for making me feel like a part of their family.  They showed me around the city, an island, and their beliefs. One tiny thing that’s actually kind of funny is seeing how bad our language translates to them. They have a lot of English signs for visitors, but a lot of them translate wrong. For example, I found a shirt that was trying to say “Distance makes the heart grow fonder,” but ending up saying, “Distance makes the heart grow fonder.” For more examples, you can look up Taiwan translation by Critic Lee on Instagram (He’s one of the friends I made there from Canada and he has a whole account just to post mistranslations).  Another great thing that traveling does is give you multiple perspectives on life. It teaches you new outlooks on life and what it means to really live. I highly recommend saving up and taking a trip soon. Even if it’s in the same country, it’ll make a difference. I’ve met a lot of people here at Louisiana Tech that live three to five hours from me and have a completely different culture than I do. That means different food, phrases, and a lot of times a different religion. I loved it in Taiwan and hope to go again soon, as well as other places too. The friendships you make along the way are so worth it. I met a woman sitting next to me on my flight from LAX to Taipei who was from The Philippines (she was going back home to visit) and two weeks later on my flight back when I arrived in LAX I saw her again! It was such an insane and thrilling coincidence. I’ve kept up with a few people throughout the years that I met in Taiwan through social media. One girl was actually doing a foreign exchange program in Virginia and got to fly to Ruston and spend a whole week with me. It was so much fun! If you want to see our picture, you can always look me up on Instagram as nicparkerman. There are always things you can do while traveling that will make it more memorable. You could take a picture next to road signs or art, write a daily journal on what you did and saw that day, try a new restaurant every day, buy postcards to save or mail to friends and family, buy a magnet or other souvenir for each place or city, etc. The list could go on and on. Follow your heart’s desire. Live a little, laugh a lot, and make some memorable memories.

Taiwan surprised me by having Starbucks, McDonald’s, and Kentucky Fried Chicken. I honestly didn’t expect them to have anything from America since it’s such a small country. The second picture is me admiring the Starbucks from across the street, then we went in! They even had an upstairs area where you could do your work or socialize with friends which is way fancier than any Starbucks I’ve seen in the United States. Also, there are a lot of motorcycles/scooters in the picture because that’s the main vehicle they drive. After all, it’s smaller and easier to park.

There’s so much more I could talk about, more pictures I could show, more memories I could relive, but I think it’s better if you make your own stories, memories, and pictures. “Traveling – it leaves you speechless then turns you into a storyteller.” – Ibn Batuta. Go on, then. The world is waiting for you.  

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