Why we travel?

Outline

Your travels
Why travel?
Why travel top 10
Why should young people travel?
Why don't Americans travel?
Self-imposed Isolation
Long way Round / Long Way Down review
A geographer's perspective

Your travels

Describe where you have traveled and what brought you to these places. What was the motivation for the trips?

I have traveled throughout my entire life. Most of my travels outside the country were for family vacations, with an exception of a two-week study abroad trip that I took last year to the UK. Trips that I have gone on within the U.S. were for the purpose of seeing family and friends that lived in other states. For example, I have traveled to Seattle, Washington multiple times to visit my uncle that lives in the city. In Summer 2015, I visited Phoenix, Arizona for the purpose of seeing my friend that used to be the pastor at the church I grew up in and his family. Throughout the years, my family and I have also taken trips up to Minnesota to visit family friends there.

My very first trip outside of Nebraska was when I was 3 years old which was when I traveled to Savanna, Georgia. Since I was only three at the time, I do not remember this trip very well. I traveled to Mystic, Connecticut when I was 5 for a Make-A-Wish trip to a theme park as a liver transplant recipient. I was given this opportunity to take this trip due to my status of being a transplant patient as well as already being sick at the time of the trip and my family did not know for sure if I was going to live.

Other states and cities that I have traveled to for family vacations include Sanibel Island and Marco Island, Florida, Palm Springs, California, Wisconsin, and Memphis, Tennessee. My trip to Memphis, Tennessee was in 2010. It had a specific motivation behind it. My parents had given the trip to me as part of a Christmas present to see Elvis Presley’s Graceland home located in the city. During the trip, we also visited Sun Records Recording Studio, where Presley got his start recording early rock n’ roll songs as well as visiting the Civil Rights Museum.

Another trip I took in Summer 2015 was to Detroit, Michigan for a church youth group mission’s trip. We went on the trip to perform our church worship program and serve impoverished areas of the city.

My first trip I ever took outside of the United States was to Baja California, Mexico in Summer 2008. This trip was a family vacation taken with my father’s entire side of the family. After this trip, my immediate family would travel back to Mexico for further vacations up until August 2016. We stayed in a different location within Mexico each time we visited.

In Summer 2009, I got the opportunity to go on a trip up to southern Canada with my grandfather and a friend of his. The motivation behind this trip was simply to fish. We stayed in a cabin on a lake for one week and fished every day.

In 2013, I visited Europe for the very first time. This trip to Europe was a family vacation to celebrate both the recent marriage of my brother and his wife as well as the 50-year wedding anniversary of my grandparents. We were in Europe for two weeks. Our trip began with a three-day stay in Prague, Czech Republic. After three days in Prague, my family and I boarded a river boat cruise ship in Nuremburg, Germany that took us down the Rhein River that flows through southern Germany. The cruise down the Rhein River lasted one whole week. When the week was over, we took a train from our departure city in Germany (I cannot remember what specific city we departed from) to Paris, France. We stayed another three days in Paris before flying back home.

Three years later, I returned to Europe twice in the Summer of 2016. My first time back was in June when I traveled to London, England, UK. This trip was a gift from my uncle for graduating from high school. We stayed in London for just under a week and saw the highlights of the city including the Big Ben Clock Tower, the London Bridge, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral and the London Eye.

One month later, I came back to Europe again. This trip was a tour with my German class from high school through all of the German-speaking countries in western Europe. The two-week trip started and ended in Germany. In between the beginning and end of the trip, my class and I visited Salzburg, Austria, Lichtenstein and Switzerland. While in Germany, we visited cities such as Munich, Cologne and Bonn.

Finally, this past year in 2019, I traveled to Europe two more times. As mentioned earlier, the first time was for a two-and-a-half-week study abroad trip to London, England, UK. This trip was attached to a class that I took in the Spring of last year called “Brexit and Beyond: British Politics.” Throughout the stay, my classmates and I toured multiple areas both in and outside of London. In London, we visited the British Parliament Building, Westminster Abbey, the Museum of London and other city highlights. Outside of London, we visited small English towns including Windsor, Stratford-Apon-Avon and Portsmouth. One weekend during the trip, my class and I were given the opportunity to have a “free weekend” where we could choose to either stay in the UK or travel to a different European country nearby. The part of my class that I chose to stay with that weekend went to Paris. In Paris, we took an evening cruise down the Sein River, visited the Eiffel Tower, shopped and then we split up the next day. On the second day, I chose to go on my own independent tour of Paris where I visited the Louvre Museum and wandered the streets all day seeing what I could find for my own pleasure in the city. This was also a test in building self-confidence and learning how to navigate a foreign city without anyone else’s help.

The next month in July, I flew to Ireland for a Catholic Mission Trip with people from the Catholic dormitory that I live at here in Omaha. This trip also lasted a little more than two weeks. While in Ireland, my group of fellow missionaries and I mentored middle school- and high school-aged Irish kids who came from troubled homes as well as evangelized in the different cities that we visited. Cities in Ireland that my group and I spent time in included Castlebar, Cork, and Waterford. During our stay, we also took part in a few excursions such as visiting the Islands of Mohr, hiking the mountain trail that is said to have been walked on by St. Patrick, visiting an Irish beach and touring multiple cathedrals throughout Cork.

Why travel?

How does Huberman (Why Travel?) explain to her friends in Maine why she travels? Comment on some of the experiences she describes, and what she sees as the ultimate reason for travel.

In her article, Huberman explains why she travels by sharing her experiences of seeing how people of different cultures and societies handle the same issues that we deal with in America. Huberman tells us that before she left on her 10-month trip around the world with her sister, she told her co-workers that traveling would be a good way for her to find “new ways of doing and seeing things.” She tells about her experiences in India and China from simple things like throwing an empty bottle of water on the ground and seeing small-scale replicas of tourist destinations located in different countries to huge things like being molested. By sharing her experiences, she reveals how different countries are from the U.S. in terms of how they deal with crime as well as how they view the concept of exploring the world around them. Huberman then claims that her ultimate reason for traveling is for the purpose of “looking with new eyes on familiar things.”

First of all, Huberman tells of her experience in India after finishing a bottle of water, she looked for a garbage can to throw the empty bottle in. When her Indian friend that was accompanying her realized what she was looking for, he told her that all of India was a ‘dustbin,’ indicating that it would be acceptable if she just tossed her empty water bottle to the ground. In the U.S., such an act would be considered littering, which Huberman could be ticketed for. However in India, it is normal to have the sides of streets covered with people’s garbage.

Another experience Huberman had in India happened while she was teaching English as a foreign language. She was walking home after class one evening and was molested. After the incident, she returned to the school she was teaching at the next day and told her fellow instructors what happened. That night after class, Huberman’s colleagues followed her home and sure enough, Huberman’s attacker approached her again. This time, however, Huberman’s fellow instructors caught the attacker before he could do any further harm to Huberman and then they took him to the police station. At the police station, officers took Huberman’s attacker into the questioning room and physically beat him while Huberman sat in the waiting room. When Huberman asked the school director that was with her why the police were beating her attacker, the school director said, “Of course they have to beat him! How else would they get him to confess?” This experience shows how in another country, a crime such as molestation could be dealt with by beating the perpetrator until they finally confess to the crime and are sentenced to prison while in the U.S., the perpetrator would go on trial in court to be questioned before they are sentenced.

Finally, during her stay in China, Huberman had her final life-changing experience. One day, she visited an amusement park with her Chinese friend named Xiao. The park was called “Windows of the World” in the city of Changsha. At the amusement park, Xiao told Huberman about the small-scale replicas of renowned world tourist destinations and how they represented the only way the Chinese people were able to see the world around them. This experience gave Huberman the opportunity to see the world in the eyes of a Chinese person at that time. She realized that the Chinese could only view the outside world through these little “windows” that were represented by the small-scale replicas of individual countries that included one famous tourist destination from each country.

At the end of her article, Huberman acknowledges that her experiences in India and China made her a “wiser and changed American.” Her travels gave her better insight into how different peoples and cultures often take a common issue and deal with it in such a way that could seem disturbing and backwards in the eyes of a foreigner. Based on her observations, Huberman returned home with a valuable lesson that she claims the world has and her native Maine doesn’t: only from outside can you look back in.

Why travel top ten

From the list of ten reasons, pick three that would be the most important to you and explain why.

Of the ten reasons that are given in this article as to why people should travel, the three that are most important to me would be that travel teaches you about the world, that travel teaches you about yourself and that travel helps build self-confidence and independence. These three reasons are important to me because I have personally realized them for myself throughout my years of traveling thus far.

Personally, the first most important reason to travel would be because it teaches you about the world. I am someone that greatly appreciates learning everything I can about other people worldwide. I enjoy learning how they live on a day-to-day basis as well as how they and their country have come to be what they are today through their unique histories. As stated in the article, I do enjoy learning about foreign peoples’ different cultures, habits, traditions and thinking as well as whether or not they believe in a higher deity and how they prefer to earn a living. Once I learn something new about any of these aspects of the people that I encounter while traveling, I typically compare their perspectives with my own and it teaches me to appreciate and respect their different point of views all the more!

Personally, the second most important lesson about traveling is that traveling teaches you about yourself. Through the years, the trips I have taken have taught me so much about myself in terms of how I can interact with people that come from a different country and may even speak a different language than I do. I have learned that I enjoy communicating and finding ways to get along with foreigners by going on trips to different countries that force me to interact and make peace with those I encounter in my host country. Traveling both in and outside the U.S. has also taught me that in the case of an unexpected disaster, I can panic in the moment but then look back on the incident, as soon as a day later, and see it as an exciting and educational experience. When this happens, I typically cannot wait to tell my friends and family about the experience and what I learned from it when I return home. My travels have also taught me that I enjoy comparing not only different cultures with my own but comparing the actual physical appearance of the land around me in my host country with the land I see at home in the U.S. I try to find large-scale differences in the “lay of the land” of a foreign country in comparison with the U.S. as well as finding as many similarities as I can between the two countries. Finally, for the most part, my travels outside of the U.S. have taught me that I am a resourceful traveler. If I get lost in a city in the foreign country I’m visiting, I’ve learned that I’m not afraid to seek help wherever I can find it if it means keeping myself on the right path to where I want to go. I’ve learned that I’m comfortable with asking anybody from local citizens to restaurant managers for directions when I need help navigating the city I’m in. I’ve had to do this in virtually every foreign country that I’ve visited. Each time I asked a local person for directions, I became more comfortable with it.

Last of all, the third benefit discussed in this article that is most important to me is that travel builds your self-confidence and independence. This lesson from traveling is especially important to me as I have also experienced this at personal levels during my trips abroad. When I have traveled abroad alone with other people that were not my loved ones, I was forced to look out for myself. As a liver transplant patient, I take regular medication for my liver function. While traveling abroad, I’ve had to personally hold myself accountable to make sure that I take my meds on time, get good sleep and eat as decently as I can to avoid getting sick. This is one example of how my travels have helped me become more independent. Also, as mentioned above, whenever I wanted to speak to citizens of my host country that I did not know, I had to work up the confidence to step out of my comfort zone and initiate conversation. Again, the more I practiced this, the more comfortable I became with it and I became more excited about doing it as well. Getting lost in foreign cities including Paris and London helped my independence in the way I was able to get directions to the places I knew that I wanted and needed to get to. Because of this experience, if I ever get lost in a foreign city again, I know I’ll be confident and independent enough to ask for the directions to help me navigate myself to wherever I want or need to go.

Why should young people travel?

Comment on Peterson's arguments for why young people should travel. What are the six reasons and can you think of more?

In her article, Peterson claims that there are six reasons that explain why young people should take advantage of the opportunity to travel abroad before their lives get taken over by an established career. The six reasons she gives include: the opportunity to step out of your comfort zone, building confidence, developing cultural sensitivity, gaining the ability to adapt to globalization, becoming immersed in a second or third language and finally, finding infinite opportunities to network. I think all six of Peterson’s reasons for young people to travel abroad are true and fair. Each reason opens up a wider, brighter and bigger world to every young person that has these reasons realized for them upon traveling abroad.

As for the first two reasons of stepping out of their comfort zone and building confidence, one reason leads to the other. When the young person that travels abroad steps out of their comfort zone by simply exploring another country and its culture, it leads to the young person building confidence in themselves knowing that they are capable of this new adventure. This is only where one’s confidence starts to build while traveling abroad. In comparison to these reasons going hand in hand with one another, the following two reasons also seem to naturally connect. As Peterson notes in her article, being culturally sensitive enhances young people’s ability to adapt to globalization. When one becomes culturally sensitive to the people of a foreign country and culture, it can result in an enhanced ability to understand, relate to and connect with that people alongside everyone else from a different country and culture in our globalized world. Finally, the last two reasons that Peterson gives to explain why more young people should travel match each other as well. Peterson argues that it would be beneficial for the traveling young person to be immersed in a second, if not third, language while abroad. Peterson’s other argument is that traveling opens up infinite opportunities for the young person to network. One can realize that these two claims link together as knowing the language of the people you’re living amongst leads to an easier ability to network with them while living in their homeland.

Due to the majority of my traveling abroad being without my family, the reasons that I can think of as to why young people should travel abroad revolve around taking responsibility for oneself. Young people should travel abroad because such an experience will force them to take responsibility for themselves on multiple levels including self-health care and managing a budget. The last thing a young person should want to have happen while traveling abroad is getting sick and running out of money. In terms of self-health care, a young person traveling abroad should be sure to eat the healthiest foods that are available in their host country and get enough sleep to avoid getting sick. In addition to maintaining a healthy diet and sleep schedule, if the young person takes any prescribed medication for preexisting health concerns, they must be responsible enough to take their medications as directed by their doctor back home. Last of all, traveling abroad forces the young person, who is likely on a budget, to keep track of how much money they are spending. Keeping track of how much money they have and can spend while abroad can be challenging for young people as they will have to keep exchange rates in mind when making purchases. I would like to assume that all young people would keep exchange rates between their home country’s currency and their host country’s currency in mind, but if they would forget, it would be easy to splurge and quickly wind up broke.

Why don't Americans travel?

What are some reasons why Americans don't travel.

In her article entitled “Why More Americans Don’t Travel Abroad,” Natalie Avon claims that there are four reasons that explain why Americans prefer to travel within the country instead of traveling internationally. The four reasons that Avon gives include the United States’ rich cultural and geographical diversity, Americans’ skepticism and ignorance toward other countries, an American work culture that keeps citizens from taking long vacations abroad and finally, prohibitive costs and logistics of traveling to other countries.

First of all, with America’s cultural and geographical diversity, people have multiple destinations within the country to travel to if they want a change in scenery and culture. As Avon notes, the U.S. has destinations including the beautiful, sandy beaches of Florida, skiing in Colorado and the desert sun in Arizona that compete to attract vacationers. According to this article, everything-everywhere.com author Gary Arndt argues that people can do all kinds of things without their passports when they choose to vacation within U.S. borders. In addition, Arndt adds that with the country’s many different ethnic enclaves found in big American cities, people can be exposed to other cultures without spending the money and time they would otherwise spend if they traveled outside the country. Often, this is enough multiculturalism for Americans, thus many don’t see a need to travel abroad.

As mentioned above, another reason why more Americans choose to not travel overseas is because of their skepticism and ignorance toward other countries. As international traveler and creator of NomadicMatt.com, Matthew Kepnes claims, Americans are only skeptical of other countries because they don’t know enough about them. Kepnes goes on to argue that this skepticism is brought on by bad news reports about our world. Arndt also acknowledges the fact that foreign countries usually don’t make it into the news for good things, but for natural disasters and bad news. Furthermore, many Americans naturally think of the worst possible things that could happen while vacationing in a foreign country. People fear they could be abducted, robbed, raped, or get sick and have no access to good healthcare as they assume that most hospitals abroad do not offer the care that American hospitals offer, as also noted by Arndt and Kepnes. Arndt concludes this argument by claiming that these fears, again, come from negative news reports about foreign countries and are used by Americans to support their refusal to travel abroad.

In her article, Natalie Avon argues that America’s work culture is another reason for why Americans tend to opt out of traveling abroad. In the U.S. work culture, taking a year off between finishing a college degree and getting a first job is not promoted. Kepnes claims that up until recently, taking a gap year between finishing college and landing a job afterwards killed the chances of an American getting a job. He says that the mentality of continuously working keeps Americans from traveling abroad. Finally, Kepnes’ last argument is that the U.S. simply does not have a travel culture. He claims that while other countries have travel cultures that put more emphasis on leisure, Americans choose to make money rather than go and experience another part of the world.

Last of all, Avon claims that more Americans choose to not travel overseas due to prohibitive costs and logistics. She points to Kepnes’ argument that suggests time is money for many Americans. A lot of people in the U.S. don’t take long vacations to other countries because they realize they could spend that time at home making money at their jobs for more practical use. In terms of logistics, Avon points out that the U.S. is such a large country that a flight from one state to another could take just as much time as a flight to Europe for the average American. Thus, Americans are more likely to travel to another state within the U.S. than to a foreign country for vacation.

Self-imposed Isolation?

Each of us lives in varying degrees of isolation from the rest of the world. This isolation is both happenstance and self-imposed. If we are born in an isolated part of the world with few opportunities to travel, we will likely lead an isolated existence. Self-imposed isolation occurs when have many opportunities to see other parts of the world but choose to spend our time and resources in one tiny area. We isolate ourselves because we are afraid or uncomfortable in other parts of the world.

Describe the lives of some people you know and how they engage in self-imposed isolation.

Isolation is an issue that is mostly self-imposed. Millions of people chose to become self-isolated out of fear of a natural disaster occurring or somehow getting hurt while traveling. Others choose to isolate themselves simply because they’re ‘home-bodies.’ This doesn’t mean they’re afraid to travel due to the former, but instead, out of being content with the world they’re already in.

The first person I think of when I think about self-imposed isolation is my grandmother. My grandmother is honestly not completely opposed to travel, especially if it’s within the United States. However, my grandmother is sometimes nervous about traveling outside the U.S. as she hears about disasters and other horror stories of people getting hurt or killed while traveling abroad or staying in another country. Hearing about these kinds of tragedies on the news and in newspapers is enough to make my grandmother want to stay home.

The other person in my family that comes to mind when I think of self-imposed isolation is my mother. My mother is not afraid of traveling, regardless of whether it’s inside the U.S. or abroad. However, she likes to stay in her own environment at home. My mother has her reasons for why she’d rather stay home than travel anywhere inside or outside the U.S. For example, she doesn’t like too much car or plane travel as she struggles to sleep on both and can easily get a migraine as a result. My mother also doesn’t like to deal with flight layovers and struggles to adjust to time changes when she travels. She often doesn’t sleep well in the new environments of her travel destinations either. Thus, my mother would rather stay home than face any of these challenges while traveling.

Passports

Maps of passport ownership in US by state have been used in different ways. Do a Google Image search and include one of these maps below. Discuss the distribution. What does passport ownership indicate?

As we can see from the map above, the only state that has less than 20% of its population owning passports is Mississippi. Apart from Mississippi, all other states in the South and Midwest have more than 20-30% of their populations owning passports. These areas of lower percentages of people owning passports indicate the economic statuses of the people that live there. States with more than 40-50% or above 60% of their populations owning passports are located on the different coasts of America. Again, in terms of economics, this is because people who live on the coasts often have more money and are also geographically located where traveling abroad is more convenient. These patterns of passport ownership indicate the unequal distribution of wealth throughout the United States.

Here is the web address I found my map at: https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/03/americas-great-passport-divide/72399/

Submitted by Spence Bridgman on January 24, 2020.