In my life I have traveled many places. My most frequent place to travel is Virginia. I travel there about once a year because I have family that lives there and it is important to see them as much as I can. Another trip I take often is to Kansas City, I typically go there for a couple days at a time just for fun with a friend or my girlfriend just to get away. Recently I took a trip to Denver, to interview for Physical Therapy School and to visit a friend. An additional trip I have been on is to Niagara Falls, my family and I went to see the spectacle and just to go on a vacation and enjoy some time off of work.
She explains it by saying “I’ll be exposed to new ways of doing and seeing things. It will be good for me.”. She thought that she knew a lot more about traveling and her experience than she really had. Her experience there was very different than what she was used to. Their culture surprised her as she took it all in. She spoke of trash differences, how their criminals were handled, and many other things. She sees the ultimate reason for travel is to take in other cultures and learn more about them and by doing this, she was changed as a person.
Hannah Peterson’s six reasons you should travel are: you’ll get out of your comfort zone, traveling builds confidence, you will develop cultural sensitivity, you can adapt to globalization, be immersed in a second (or Third) Language, and the infinite opportunities to network. I think she is right that it is smart to travel when you are young. There is a much lower chance you have an established family or career that you are leaving and could mess up. There is ample time to make changes and see what you like and don’t like. If you make a mistake, so what, you can just forget about it and come back to your home and not lose some sort of huge financial investment. She says although it may be scary it is good to leave your comfort zone. It will build and change you as a person. Networking is also a huge piece of leaving your home and traveling. It has the potential to set you up for success later in life even if you return home. Another reason I would think is a good reason to travel is to simply have fun and live your life. If you wait until you are old and retired to see the world there may be things you miss out on due to a variety of health and safety reasons. It would be great to simply let all your stress away and travel and enjoy life a bit while you are young.
According to the article, 30% of Americans have passports. That seems like a very low number for a country as well off as the United States. The numbers of those leaving the U.S. dropped from 2008 to 2009, and many of the trips outside of the country were just to Canada or Mexico. There may be a multitude of reasons for this, and the article lists a couple. One reason is that Americans are comfortable in their own environment. America has it all, according to the article, there are mountains, plains, beaches, etc. This makes America a desirable place being that there are vast differences in climate and landscape within the country itself. There is also an American elitist mindset that we think “why leave?” we have everything here no other place can be better. Many other countries are looked down on in American culture.
Each of us lives in varying degrees of isolation from the rest of the world. This isolation is both happenstance and self-imposed. If we are born in an isolated part of the world with few opportunities to travel, we will likely lead an isolated existence. Self-imposed isolation occurs when have many opportunities to see other parts of the world but choose to spend our time and resources in one tiny area. We isolate ourselves because we are afraid or uncomfortable in other parts of the world.
Describe the lives of some people you know and how they engage in self-imposed isolation
A person in my life that I have known for a while seems to like life here in Omaha much more than any other place in the whole world. They have had ample opportunity to travel and see the world, but they choose not to. She has never been outside of the country and has barely left the state. She prefers to stay close to home and is too scared of getting homesick. Missing home and being too far away has always scared her.
Another person that I know has never left the state of Nebraska for more than a couple days. The farthest outside of the state was a trip to Kansas City that only lasted a couple days. They just feel too comfortable at home. They say they have no reason to want to leave, they have what they need here at home. They also are reluctant to spend money on traveling for fear that they may not enjoy it, and it may not be worth it to them.
I enjoyed watching these series. I thought that overall they were pretty funny and entertaining. They definitely took some pretty cool trips and saw many different things over the course of their adventures. They have probably inspired many others to take similar trips or even just to travel in general. I think that it is important to note that their trips took careful planning and lots of money, and it is not something that everyone can just get up and do. It is definitely still a big inspiration piece to get up and see the world.
They initially seemed to be somewhat unprepared for this trip. They continued to seem shocked every time they passed through an area that was difficult to travel via motorcycle. If they had prepped and known all this, they would know many places are difficult enough to pass in general, but even more so on motorcycle. I know the premise was to travel on motorcycle, but they would have been much better off taking smarter or different vehicles that better fit each terrain. I have taken only a couple geography classes and they have helped me better understand how the world works and different regions. Different regions have different climates, terrains, cultures, people, etc. and this could all have better prepared them for their trips.
Submitted by Noah DeMaria on February 5, 2019.