A part of us should always be in constant travel, whether physically or mentally.

To me, traveling means leaving my comfort zone, the place where I call home. It means not knowing what to expect with the people I interact with and with the places I visit. It means throwing my expectations off the table and experiencing each step of the way with youthful and pure curiosity. To me, traveling means independence, freedom, learning, and adventure.

Beyond just checking off bucket list destinations, traveling allows me to immerse myself in a world completely different to my own. A world in which the values, priorities and languages may be radically different, making me question whether I’m living with the values and morals that I wish to implement in my life.

on physical travel…

Traveling to a different country is always such an adventurous and exciting experience. It literally pulls you away from the mundane life that you’re accustomed to, and thrusts you in an environment that leaves you in awe. The places that you’ll stay, the destinations that you’ll visit, the food that you’ll eat and the people that you’ll meet – the combination of these experiences is unlike any other. Even if you forget most of these events, you’ll leave the place with a renewed sense of understanding about the world that surrounds you. More importantly, it might even reveal a thing or two about the kind of person that you are.

Whenever I travel, I try to invest myself in the planning of the trip as much as possible. This means reading other travel bloggers’ reviews, researching about the most convenient flight schedules and prices, considering more than one place to stay at, familiarizing myself with the city before I’m even there – basically, be my own travel agent, along with whoever I’m going with. Taking these steps are crucial in my understanding of how the ‘traveling world’ works. I’ll learn from all the research, discoveries and mistakes that I make along the way, because that’s what matters to me. I don’t want to be just another blind tourist being guided to the most beautiful and popular places of a country; I want the real deal.

on mental travel…

Traveling through the eyes of others and the experiences of those that lived before us is… amazing, to say the least. The only way that we can observe life from a perspective different to our own is if we put ourselves in the shoes of someone else. The best and easiest way to do this? Read. Read lots. Fiction, business, non-fiction, biographies, fantasy. All genres, authors of all ages, dead or alive. Even the ‘badly written’ books will teach you a thing or two (for instance, how to not write a badly written book).

Physical traveling allows you to experience the novelty through your flesh and blood, while mental traveling allows you to detach from yourself and understand why others see things the way they do. I feel that they both complement each other wonderfully. They’re different kinds of travel, but each is very valuable on its own.

on traveling more

I am in constant travel. Either through the varied books that I’m currently reading, or through exciting trips that I’m lucky to go on every once in a while. But I don’t crave physical travel as much as I did before. I still value and dream about it as much as before, but I’ve realized that we shouldn’t feel like we need to travel to satisfy our adventurous self.

We can travel whenever we want to, wherever we are. We can travel in the hometown that we’ve lived in for more than a decade, within the home that saw us grow into young adults – anywhere. Because traveling is not necessarily about doing, having and going to the places that you haven’t yet been to; it’s about exploring the things that surround you in different ways.

-Michelle