Why we travel?


Outline

  1. Your travels
  2. Why travel?
  3. Why travel top 10
  4. Why should young people travel?
  5. Why don't Americans travel?
  6. Self-imposed Isolation
  7. Long way Round / Long Way Down review
  8. A geographer's perspective

Your travels

Being from the east coast, I have gone all over that side of the country. I played baseball pretty competitively and traveled quite a bit. This consisted of all over the state of Maryland as well as New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, and Delaware. We also used to go to the beach once a year and although fairly regularly we would go to the same beach in Maryland, sometimes we would travel to Delaware or to the Carolinas. Unfortunately, I have not had much of the chance to travel west of Omaha but would love the chance to do so when I am able to.

Why travel?

Amy Huberman travels not to see various "wonders" of the world, she travels to see something much different. She explains that in her travels is when she realized she was looking with new eyes at familiar things. She was littering and she has the right of the fifth amendment, and she can travel the world. This was not all the case when she originally left Maine to travel the world, but upon coming back is when these feelings came about. She also felt that she was wiser and that she was changed.

I also feel like travelling gives us knowledge in different ways we cannot get from staying home. Taking trips to various countries, long or short, can give us a much different perspective on life and how we live compared to elsewhere. It also can be very challenging travelling to places that have different language than what we speak. It takes us out of our comfort zone and can make you stronger if you step up to the challenge and see it through. This is something I would personally enjoy in travelling is learning a new language or two. I find it very fascinating how there are so many different languages and some of them are very similar, while others are oh so different. Learning another language or two would open that many more doors in the world of opportunity, whether that be work or pleasure.

Why travel top ten

Since I am so new into my travelling experiences, my reasoning may be somewhat skewed. One of the biggest reasons is the scenery and part of that is being homesick. I miss being only a couple hours away from a beach, yet then turning the opposite direction and being the same distance from the mountains. Here in Omaha, we don't have either and I never truly appreciated how beautiful it is until I had moved from it. Although I enjoy the mountains and the views they bring, I am much more of a beach goer. Every summer growing up, my family would take a weekend trip to the beach and it was always so relaxing and a time where we could just do nothing.

 

Another reason is the memories that are made and mental images that are kept forever. When I travelled to Cancun, Mexico, we decided to go cave diving and zip lining. This was the first time I had ever done either of these and when I say breathtaking it is truly an understatement. I can still visualize the bottomless caves that you could stare down into and just wonder what is down there. And when above the trees on the zip lines, you could see the entire jungle and just see for miles. We also had the chance to go snorkeling in Punta Cana over a small coral reef. The beauty of the reef and all the colors of the fish was something I can’t describe.

 

My final reason for travelling is the cultures. Travelling to both Cancun and Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, I was blessed to stay on a resort, but we wanted to venture from the resort as well. We wanted to see some of the cultures and what people who didn’t work for the resort were doing. I will never forget being in a cab in the Dominican, we were driving to the resort and passing by us one after the other on the shoulder were these motorized bikes/scooters. I was so taken back that these people were just weaving in and around traffic via the shoulder because in the U.S. this is illegal. But then our cab jumped in and did the same to pass some of the traffic!

 

Why should young people travel?

I agree with Peterson's reasonings that young people should travel. I have had the discussion with some friends that we do life backwards. What I mean in this is for the first 20 or so years, we should be travelling and take opportunity to be who we want to be, not the last 20 years. Then maybe we could truly decide what we want to do for the rest of our lives, instead of changing majors and jobs time after time again.

 

The six reasons listed are as follows: 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 Infinite opportunities to network. I think all these reasons are great reasons to continue traveling as well. I would also add in Appreciation for opportunity given to travel. Especially at a young age, we tend to take everything for granted and by seeing the world and seeing how blessed we truly are can be eye opening.

 

Again, travelling is a chance to learn new things and gain experiences that are not obtainable where we live. Learning new languages and dialects is something that could come in great use at any time. Building your own character is possible to when outside of your comfort zone. Growth is always healthy and we should strive to continue learning.

 

Why don't Americans travel?

I would say Americans don't travel for a few reasons. The first and biggest reason being money. We are so caught up in consumables and showing off material goods that we waste our money on these things. But if we were smarter about budgeting funds, both things really are possible, which would allow us to travel more.

 

Another reason we do not travel is purely based on where we live. As I mentioned before, we are blessed to be given opportunities that we are given living in the United States. That is why so many immigrants want to come to the U.S. and work/school/live. We always see the negatives in the media that Mexico's water can't be drank or that somewhere has a failing economy. This makes us not want to see the potential beauty in traveling and the good that could be seen in these places. I think the media plays a large part in this by giving us the bad about places and painting a negative image for us.

 

Another reason we do not travel is “time”. This is a great excuse saying, “I don’t have time,” or using work as the reasoning. But we are not machines, we need breaks and travelling, while yes it can be enjoyable, it is also a learning tool. If we stop learning in life or think we know everything than we peak. Nobody should ever peak but continue to learn and develop their mind.

 

My final reason somewhat connects to my first reason. With a large cultural blending of basically anything/anywhere in the world all here in the United States, some people may think they have seen everything a place has to offer. Between restaurants of any kind, to the "Little Italy" or "Chinatown" that can be found in the city. Some people view this as a cheaper alternative to leaving when they have in their opinions the best qualities all here. Not to mention the internet and what you can search for now being so accessible means you can see the sights whenever you wish.

 

Self-imposed Isolation?

I would say the people that I know are the self-imposed isolation type. A big part of me saying this is I have lived in Omaha for 5 years now and just had ONE friend come to visit me for the first time. I try to go back at least once a year to see friends and family as much as I can. But I just had my first visitor since I have been here. I think part of the reason is they never knew a whole lot about Nebraska and didn't really care to either. But now that he has come and gone, a group of my friends want to come out this summer. They have always had the opportunity to come out here and visit, but just never felt the need to leave where they are.

My younger brother tries come out here as often as I go back to see him. This past time he brought his girlfriend, who had never been on a plane before. She is a great example of self-imposed because she travels from West Virginia to South Carolina to visit her sister, but she always drives. This is an 8-hour car trip both ways that she chooses to do, simply because she does not like planes. When my brother convinced her to come out, she was very nervous. After getting off the first planes in Chicago, her nerves were very high as she knew she had to do it again. She did it though and after they stayed and went back home, he asked her if she would go back out again. She told him yes because her fear of planes was gone. She let a fear of something, due to what she has heard or seen in the media, depict what she did. It wasn’t that she couldn’t travel, but that she was too afraid of how to get long distances.

Another example I have of this is my sister-in-law. She also is a great example of having the resources but digging too far into the media. When I went to Punta Cana for a wedding in 2015, she also came with. The weeks leading up to the trip, all she talked about were the negatives of the Dominican Republic. She would search for the horrors off the resort, as well as things that happen to people (getting drugged, bad water, etc). to the point that she almost didn’t go on the trip. After we were there all she spoke of was the beauty of the beach and how nice the people were. She just was blinded by what is in the media to want to have a good time.

 

Long way Round / Long way Down review

I do agree with Wallaston's review and in his comparisons between the two. Because in the end, these are two somewhat similar trips that ultimately are very different. The best way to describe this would be like glamping (glamour camping). You have the people who go out into the wild and pitch their own tent, find wood for a fire to help keep warm and to cook food and bring light to the area, and sleep on the ground. But you also have people with massive campers that are heated and have a full kitchen and bathroom, Wi-fi and heat, and everything you can imagine. The concept and idea start out the same, but in the end, they are both fun but very different.

A Missing Geographic Perspective

In the first season when they are planning their trip, they map the entire trip. When meeting with people, they find out how unpopulated some of these areas are and how dangerous it could be. I think having previous knowledge on these places specifically is important to keep them out of danger. It would be difficult enough not having previous experiences and traveling to areas like this. But to be doing so and so far along into the trip is different. I have taken a few geography courses already, which include a World Geography course, a GPS/GIS course, and a Human-Environment course. Although very different, each course has helped broaden my knowledge on the topic. I think the GPS course would be most helpful in this case for the team. This would allow the team the advantages of mapping and understanding the landscape that they are traveling.

 


Submitted by Trey Mumma on 2/2/2019.