How Travel Changed My Life, And Can Change Yours

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Traveling is not for everyone. Some people prefer to be homebodies, seeking peace and solitude with the familiar and regular routine – and that’s fine.

But there are others that hunger for adventure and the need to break free from the norm, to experience things that others could only dream of, and to leave behind the daily routines and every day life for something out of their comfort zone.

Those people will benefit from travel.

You may have heard a lot of people say “travel changed my life” a lot, and think those people are just pretentious or exaggerating. It’s an easy assumption to make if you’ve never traveled before. But you’d be surprised by how much travel can affect you.

We all have one of those friends who will take any opportunity to “tell you about my gap y’ar” at any possible moment. Those people sometimes receive eye rolls and responses of “Yes, we’ve heard this story twelve times already,” or they may be met with expressions of awe and envy – usually the latter.

Those friends have a point. They’ve found something on their journey that can only be found if they pack their suitcase, embark on that adventure, and seek a unique experience.

If you want to be more like those friends, here are some of the ways travel can change your life.

How Travel Changes Your Life

1. It Takes You Out Of Your Comfort Zone

When I decided to take the leap and go traveling, I was also battling an anxiety disorder that had kept me in its grasp for the better part of a decade.

It was an illness that, at its worst point, had left me housebound for a period of six months.

My anxiety brought with it panic attacks, multiple times a day, for months on end.

A sheltered upbringing and a determination to avoid anything that could trigger a panic attack meant I had no life experience and possessed little common sense.

I didn’t know how to function in everyday life; I had never been on a bus before and I had never eaten rice.

Needless to say, traveling was well out of my comfort zone. When I eventually traveled, I landed myself in the deep end and had to figure out not only how to travel but how to live independently. It taught me lessons that no school or teacher can.

I was six months into my trip when I…