by Chris Spruck
Traveling really changes one’s perspective in a variety of ways. I have been amazingly fortunate to have had the opportunity to travel, both around the US and to a few other countries. I feel that it’s really important to experience other places, people, and cultures that are different from your own, and watching or reading National Geographic just isn’t the same. It’s easy to hunker down in a monoculture, where you’re familiar with everything, know all your neighbors, and eat the same food, week after week.
It’s also easy to lose sight of the opportunities and how rich a life we have here in the US, regardless of one’s salary. Most of us probably don’t think twice about the availability of food or clean water. Traveling to a Third World country is especially eye-opening. Even within the same country or region, you might see stark contrast between those who have and those who don’t. I experienced this in Indonesia, seeing a large city as well as small farming villages. When you meet families and children who live on dollars a week and walk miles for a pail of water or to school, yet are as happy as can be, it really makes you take stock and realize what you have and how easy you have it.
Seeing fantastic wildlife is another great aspect of travel, especially when something might be rare or vastly different from what’s in your neck of the woods. It’s rather exciting, to say the least, to be standing just feet away from multiple Komodo dragons (which only number between 4,000 and 5,000 left in the world) in their native habitat. Seeing young orangutans at a rehabilitation center and hearing of their plight and typical maltreatment was quite a moving experience as well.
I describe some of my travels as “life-changing experiences” and I truly believe they were. I am more open-minded and take people and many aspects of my life much less for granted than I used to, and I’ve learned there can be great lessons in simple things. I’ve met some really terrific people and seen some pretty incredible wildlife, and I wish everyone could have similar experiences to mine.
Chris Spruck is a Web Applications Developer for UWG|Online.
