11/25/2019
11 out of 13 people think this photo is crazy. Don't worry, I'm not in the 15%
Hello There! This site is supposed to be social, right? I haven't always done a good job of keeping up with sharing. Let's change that now.
About 15 days ago, I decided that I was going to go to China for the weekend, or in reality, about 36 hours. I travel nearly every week, yet this was the first time I can remember being this anxious or nervous in a while.
Living out a suitcase has become second nature to me now, but this was something different. Language, culture, the distance, and wifi blocks; all felt like a different universe. Rambling about how it was my longest flight or how IG and even google maps were banned is fun, but what really hit me was my experience with the people.
The benefit of travel is to see new worlds and to try to understand people. I saw, despite some challenging language situations, people helping people. Poor planning led me to the entrance of the Forbidden City without Yen. Another traveler saw my situation and offered to pay. It was ~$5 total but made such an impact as I was already short on time.
The more I travel, the more I realize we're all the same. Different, but the same. I believe travel teaches us that lesson. Maya Angelou said it best, "We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike."
I thought a weekend trip to China was crazy, and that's part of why I went. Pushing ourselves to take on new challenges is how we grow. I wrote more about it in my blog, that's going to launch in December. I hope that by launching the blog, I can help others travel more by sharing these stories.