I wish I could teach classes on traveling and life abroad. There is a lot you learn trotting around the world that sits in your brain, rotting away. Unfortunately, society is not very friendly to world travelers. Because once you have seen the world, you change. The change you experience comes from an understanding of reality. An unwelcome change. For example, the first time you see starving children. I remember, I was 8. I looked back behind our tuktuk on the outskirts of Chiang Mai, Thailand. and there were four children, running behind us. You can see the starvation of a person in their eyes. Their young brown eyes and small bodies were desperate. It was grotesque, heart-breaking, confusing, and did not fit into anything I had experienced so far in my life time. That was the beginning of an education I would not be able to share with everyone. When I graduated from high-school and moved on to college I quickly realized that no one wanted to hear my stories. And I couldn’t blame them. They weren’t there, their worlds were 1/5 the size of mine. Why would they want to hear about a life that to them, didn’t even exist? This phenomena still gets me today. What is it about America that makes us so uninterested in the world? To an extreme that we are almost offended by the reality of the nations that surround us? Why do we make assumptions about the lives and cultures of others because we are too scared to find out for ourselves? The most opinionated people I meet are the people who have never left the country. Isn’t that fascinating? Ironically, I hear so many young people who tell me they want to travel the world. What they mean, is that they are interested in gaining the social status of a world traveler, without the inconvenience of actually learning about the world and how it works. I know because I watched American tourists on vacation my entire life. They are fat, loud, obnoxious, and entitled. They are the reason most countries have a booming prostitution business. American tourists can travel a country for three weeks and leave without spending a second talking to someone from that country. They are simply transported from building to building. And we call this “experiencing the world.” As I write this I realize I began this post speaking out of my own frustration of being unheard. Now I realize my story may not be necessary to hear. However, the worlds story is waiting, and I’m afraid you’re missing it. please please please, take a second to think about your world view. Have you even tried to care about anything but your own surroundings? There is a world out there. And yes, it is easier to pretend it doesn’t exist. It feels better to be opinionated about places and people you don’t even know about. Do the hard thing. Go look some starving kids in the face. Read a book. Talk to someone who doesn’t speak English. You want to call yourself a traveler?
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AuthorMy name is Lily. Archives
October 2016
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