EDUCATION VALUE OF TRAVELING

As someone who has traveled “solo” ( I stayed immersed in a foreign culture for one month all by myself when I was 12 ), I can only be thankful for the benefits my childhood and young live traveling experiences brought to my life.

From gaining the ability to speak a language and know about a culture from a first hand experience to develop a sense of connection to a different culture than your own: traveling can be a teacher in almost all areas of knowledge.

I am a firm believer than anyone should have some traveling experience as part of the their education, and in the same way that I do not support people should skip university or schooling as it will serve you later in life, I think people should not skip doing some traveling before starting the working life.

A combination of both will give you better abilities to later in life adapt to new situations and solve problems as well as some of what you learn will stay with you longer than if you learn it only from books.

Traveling will enhance your memory

Representational systems are those systems in which all thinking is considered to take place. Hence they are considered essential to the learning process.

There are four main representational and those are visual, auditory, kinaesthetic and auditory digital.

When you are learning from a book or in a classroom you are mostly using your visual and auditory digital representational systems. Traveling experiences will go into your brain through all the senses, including kinaesthetic, olfactory and auditory and the knowledge will be stored in your brain quicker and will stay longer.

Traveling will make you more adaptable

Being able to adapt to situations in life it is a very important skill that is not taught in school. From the ability to adapt to new workplaces to the skill to be able to cope with circumstances life will bring you that are outside of your control, travel will prepare you for all these challenges. From having unexpected experiences on the road, such as having an arm injury and have to travel 6 weeks in Asia like this,to staying in places where people will wear white stains on their cheek, even in government buildings, such as Myanmar. Travel will make you adapt to new situations or you will have to go back home.

PIlar in phnom penh
When I had to adapt and travel for six weeks in Asia with an arm injury. Sunset tour Phnom Penh

Travel will teach you languages better than any teacher

The world that is getting more and more connected and having the ability to speak several languages can gain you jobs, friends, and many other opportunities. When you talk to someone in their own language they will become more open to you, and secretly it can help you negotiating in countries where people bargain all the time.

The quickest way to learn a language is by modeling the people who speak it and talking to them even if you make mistakes. The younger you start learning languages the quicker you learn it, so start traveling at a young age and make it part of your education.

Traveling is good for mental health

Several studies have been conducted that prove that traveling is good for our mental health and it can lower your risk of depression.Traveling is great for relieving stress and have a more positive outlook on life. When traveling you will engage more in physical activities such as hiking, swimming and so on and moderate exercise has been proved to improve mental health.

ba Pilar scuba diving in Komodo National Park

Traveling can boost your creativity

Immersing yourself in new landscapes, climates and new culture while engaging with them will increase your mind’s ability to move between different ideas and integrate thoughts.

Creativity will allow you to apply out of te box solutions to complex problems in life and will make you a more solution oriented person.

Pilar playing guitar in Kuta Lombok, Indonesia

Traveling will increase your brain neuroplasticity

Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to change adapt both, structure and function throughout life and in response to experience.

People who travel are less likely to experience cognitive decay as they will taken out off automatic pilot and will have to get out of their comfort zones, by walking new paths, learning a few words of a language or have to adapt to a culture.

Pilar attending a Berber wedding

Traveling will increase your social skills

Social skills are rarely taught at school and in your class you will most likely grow up confronting a certain group of people for several years.

Traveling will expose you to potentially more people, with different ideas and outlooks on life and will broaden your mind. An you will make new friends on the road.

Pilar hanging around with some people in the mountains of Tanzania

Traveling will give you the answer to “why’ of formal education

Traveling awakens curiosity as you will admire nature wonders and historical sites. You will explore new cultures and find similarities in the differences and will awaken thirst of knowledge to all you are experiencing.

Observing the “Auroras” can transform you into a curious physicist, exploring Angkor Wat into a historian and a philosopher, visiting places such as the Killing fields in Cambodia can turn you into a social psychologist, or learning to scuba dive into a marine biologist. Plus scuba diving is considered as credits for some university studies or it can get you a good job.

Bat fish in Thailand
Pilar
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