Its about time for me to throw my hat in the ring of "lessons learned from backpacking". Google it and you'll find no shortage of lists, but we all know simplicity is the key to happy travel, right? Here are my 3 most important things you learn on the road:
1. Your place in the world- Science helps you understand how insignificant you are. Feeling old? Are you at the age where you have to wonder how long you have left in the game? Emily Shaller is looking for the origin of life 10 billion years ago ithrough the Primordial Ices of The Kuiper Belt. Just dropped your new cell phone? Some guy in a white lab coat just discovered a subatomic particle that explains the existence of...well, existence. These things may rock your world for a time but lets face it, Its still pretty easy to escape and get caught up in our own small version of reality.
1. Your place in the world- Science helps you understand how insignificant you are. Feeling old? Are you at the age where you have to wonder how long you have left in the game? Emily Shaller is looking for the origin of life 10 billion years ago ithrough the Primordial Ices of The Kuiper Belt. Just dropped your new cell phone? Some guy in a white lab coat just discovered a subatomic particle that explains the existence of...well, existence. These things may rock your world for a time but lets face it, Its still pretty easy to escape and get caught up in our own small version of reality.
There is no escape when you're navigating the everyday backpacking world. Ever had to purchase a metro ticket in Moscow at rush hour, find a meal in a rural town in Vietnam, or cross a border at night with 4 guys trying to rob you? Your world is subordinate to everything, all day long, every day. And it's awesome.
2. Your limits - A public toilet in rural China, that third failed trip to an embassy to get home, eating blood stew with eyeballs because you can't offend the family you are staying with. Great fodder for war stories but there is much more to these tales than bragging rights. You really learn your limits...and they grow.
3. Appreciation - Every day in the backpacker world is free of routine and burden. Its about looking for people and things to appreciate, places to inspire and time to reflect. People living on a dollar a day are happier than a lot people you know at home yet they are honored to give you food.
On the road , kindness is sustenance and appreciation is survival.
Thats my list in three. You will know when you have learned the ultimate lesson from backpacking...when you are ready to take the pebbles from the hand of the master: When you get home and live like you travel. -Joe
On the road , kindness is sustenance and appreciation is survival.
Thats my list in three. You will know when you have learned the ultimate lesson from backpacking...when you are ready to take the pebbles from the hand of the master: When you get home and live like you travel. -Joe