How Has Travel Changed Me?

It has been an incredible 3 years, since I sold my car, packed my backpack and bought a one way ticket to Australia. The 3 years which have had the greatest impact in my life.

I had the incredible adventures in the Amazon jungle, I learnt to meditate in the Buddhist temple with monks in Thailand, I saw kangaroos and hug Koalas in Australia, I practiced my surf skills in Indonesia, lived with indigenous people in bamboo hut, volunteered in North of Thailand, became certificated scuba diver in Colombia, traveled solo with my backpack through Asia, Oceania, Europe, Central and South America, learnt English good enough to spread an inspiration around the World.

And I couldn’t be more grateful for what I have seen and experienced in the middle of my 20’s. New Year’s Eve, it’s a perfect time to look back at your memories and impressions. This time I sit and sum up all 3 years of my unpredictable journey.

Today, I know that travel completely changed me as a person and how I see the World now. However, it wasn’t an easy decision to quit the secure life and career to travel the World. How has this changed me? I prepared some of the most important aspects.

And still my friends, I am sure that it was the best decision in my life!

1. Appreciation – is the key

Appreciate the moment, appreciate life, appreciate what you have got, even it is not easy and fun at first. People like to complain about many things. We constantly compare ourselves to others and live in other’s people Worlds. Sometimes we can’t see the positive side of the life and we live unhappy.

Do you truly appreciate what you have? Your warm house, comfortable bed, a roof over your head? Or do you notice the tiny miracles happening in your life?

Some of you would say that it is normal to have it. However, in some part of the Word it is not. I have visited different villages and met many people struggling with poverty, lack of drinking water, hunger or slavery. I saw and understood how other people experience the World. The most important thing is who we meet on our journey and how much we are able to take from different cultures.

I feel so blessed to have my freedom, my rights and the opportunity to roam the Earth in this moment right now. And every time when I start to complain about my problems in life, I beat mine breast and I remember those people somewhere in the World.

2. I don’t need all these things

After 3 years of moving constantly from one to another country my backpack is 10 kg lighter. And it is not because I am a poorer Girl than before but because I don’t need all these things anymore. The fancy pairs of shoes in my wardrobe or new coffee machine, they simply don’t matter anymore.

After living on the beach without shoes, sleeping in the hammock and connecting with Nature, I realized that the material happiness is so fake. Travels with my two pairs of shorts, few t-shirts, and coconut oil show me that I am not less happy than before. Actually, I am happier, because I found the happiness in simple and not complicated life. And imagine how happy is my back!

3. Balance and patience

Two simple things in my life and how significant? Before I started to travel I used to live unconscious and under stress. I was “running” somewhere and actually I didn’t even know where and why?

Travels taught me to be patient and helped me to find the balance. The balance between work and pleasure, dreams and habits, freedom and fears, whom I wish to be and whom I need to be. I learnt to accept that buses and trains in Asia are late or don’t even appear, flights are delayed and some people are rude.

Impatience can destroy all travel and life. We can’t harry up some things so just leave them how they are. Every country has different and own rules which you have to accept and tolerate.

4. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable

I always repeat that the first step is the most difficult. You just have to start.

And, you will feel kind of weird, because you put yourself in a new and unfamiliar situation. However, feeling uncomfortable is significant to improve your creativity, personal growth and self-awareness.

During my journey, thousands of times I push boundaries of my comfort zone. After all, I realized that I am ok with being in uncomfortable situation.

I just love being on the road, sleeping on the floor, taking local buses, eating food from bamboo hut and driving motorbike for long hours to catch the most amazing sunset. The most emotional time, was the time spent with local people and to live like locals. I don’t complain about conditions, and I am not picky about food anymore. The tough times and dusty roads changed me from tourist to real traveler.

5. Bad experiences are good

Traveling around the World is not always so colorful like some of you think. There are bad and hard times on the road. However, I am grateful for all of them. Oh sorry, maybe, I would skip waking up with a cockroach on my face or being attacked by wild monkeys seeing me driving scooter and being interested in my bananas.

I appreciate that I can learn from my own mistakes and see with my own eyes. Now, I am able to overcome the problems on the road and I am not afraid any more of going my own way, being myself and real. Every hard time make me stronger and braver.

6. There are not strangers, only friends you haven’t met yet

This is so true and simple! Just like I appreciate moments of wonder by my own, I am also very grateful for people who appear on my way. As the most memorable and vibrant memories from my travels are people. There is something extremely special and unique about sharing your life with strangers from all over the World. Every traveler has a story to tell and lesson to give you. They teach us about ourselves, and show you a different way of living. And some of them stay with you forever, deep in your heart, even if you are not together any more. That’s the beauty of traveling, meeting on your way strangers who are becoming your best friends forever.

7. I don’t belong anywhere

Traveling the World gives you a different way of understanding the word ”home”. Coming back after a period of long-term travel is not easy, for every traveler.

You feel a sense of attachment to many places because your home in the whole World. It is not any more complicated for you to just pack your backpack and hit the road. Actually, it is essential for you like air to breath.

Those who surround you, simply can’t understand, why you don’t want to stay forever and settle into reality. Your friends getting married, having kids, buying houses, living the ”the normal life”. You are becoming a ”old maid” without ”future” for your surrounds. And doesn’t matter how much they love you or care about you, they will never completely understand what has changed inside you. And those moments of being at home are beautiful but kind of hard as well, because people expect you to live the life you don’t want to live. Your heart is longing for freedom and a new exciting adventure.

For me the most important thing in life is happiness. The decision I have made 3 years ago, I made for myself and my happiness. And even if sometimes I have doubts going different direction than others, I still believe in what I choose to become a happy person. You will never be completely at home again, because part of your heart will always be elsewhere…

You will never be completely at home again, because part of your heart will always be elsewhere… 

8. Good mental health

We travel to get over something or someone. I did. Some of you might call it running away, but I would say that travelling took me through a process of recovery and healing. It gave me time and distance. Getting your heart broken is often one of the most painful and difficult times in our lives. It can be a great way to separate yourself from the past, and learn how to let go the painful memories.

9. It’s good to be alone

Can you remember the last time you were alone with your thoughts, without any distractions? During my trip, I was on my own and it taught me responsibility for myself and my own decisions. It was the best life lesson. I became stronger and all my dreams seem to be realizable now. And every, even small experience and lesson during my trip, led to spiritual growth.

Being on my own freed my mind to explore and wonder in a very unique and creative way. I learned that loneliness is just the state of our subconscious. You can have lots of friends around, partner who always support you, be in the spotlight, but still feel lonely and alienated. So, I would say that the feeling of loneliness, depends only on us and our approach to life. What’s important is how you feel with yourself.

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