By Julia Konttila, Finland
Every time I step on an airplane, a ship or sit on the car I get this feeling of enthusiasm. It doesn’t matter whether I travel far or near, to the other side of the world, or just to a small city near me, experiencing something new always feels amazing. When I travel I can choose to live the life I have always wanted to live, without worries.
Many times when people travel they tend to focus too much on taking enough pictures or buying the perfect souvenirs. These things are great mementos from our journeys but the most important things that we take with us are not objects. Traveling teaches us more about the world and about ourselves than we could ever imagine. Traveling opens up our eyes and makes us think differently. It gives us life lessons which we can’t learn in school. Being in a new place gives us an opportunity to go outside our comfort zone, experience things for the first time and to meet new people. When we look back we often notice that the best moments were the ones which we didn’t plan. Finally, we have a chance to be spontaneous and not to follow our daily routines.
We all have probably had moments when life just feels too overwhelming and we feel like we need a break from everything and everyone. In other words, it is time to travel. When people hear the word traveling, they often think about something life-changing, something expensive, something that takes place in a different country or continent, but it doesn’t have to be like that. You can travel to a national park in your own city or to a lake which is 20 minutes away from your house. You can explore and experience something new everyday, just by using your imagination. Go to a city which you have never visited before, take a different route to school, or go on a spontaneous bike ride or visit a museum in your own city. Don’t wait for the next holiday or the next weekend, do it now. Someone once said to me “Never stop traveling.” I say “You don’t ever have to stop traveling.”
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