The desire to travel is in my blood. For the majority of his career, my grandfather worked for an airline company and had the benefit of getting free airplane tickets anywhere the company flew. For my mother, childhood holidays were spent traveling, either throughout the United States or abroad. Both my grandfather and grandmother have been to every continent, except Antarctica, and all fifty states.
When I go to my grandparent’s house in Kansas City, Missouri, after a delicious home cooked meal, the evening entertainment often is an old fashioned slide show. My grandfather will hang a sheet, as my grandmother brings out the slide projector and flips through thirty years worth of photographs telling stories as she goes. Growing up, my parents instilled in my siblings and I the importance of jumping at every opportunity you have to travel. Throughout my childhood, whenever my dad would travel for work, we would go with him.
During my time at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY, I was lucky enough to study abroad in Bath, England. Choosing to go abroad was the best decision of my college career. I had never been away from home for that long a period of time but I learned to be so much more independent and it was amazing to live somewhere that felt so different from home. While I was there, I was also able to travel throughout England, as well as to Greece and Spain.
Whether working or going to school or both, it’s important to have time that is stress free and different from our everyday routine. When you travel, you have time to get lost. You can forget the problems of home as you explore new cities, new cultures, new art and new foods. Traveling brings compassion and understanding as well as independence as you navigate your way through new, strange places and experiences. You can return home, revived, with a clear mind, and with new inspirations and insights.
Bill Bryson said, “To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.” I think that’s the most amazing thing about traveling: everyday things are new and extraordinary, every building is beautiful, kitschy souvenirs become treasures and each day holds endless possibility.
-Emilie Nadler
Photo Credit: Emilie Nadler
Photo Copyright (c) 2015 Emilie Nadler. All rights reserved.
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