Week #37 – How do you make travel meaningful?
As you may have realize, we travel a lot. Full-time. Almost everyday. On the road. Traveling. This also allows us to meet many people from around the world. On one such occasion in the Philippines, a fellow traveler happened to ask me a question that no one else has ever asked me. How do you make travel meaningful?
I went on to explain that meaningful travel can be different for each of us, depending on what was important to our lives and depending on what our overall objective is. For example, some people have the goal of traveling to 30 countries by the time they reach 30. Continuing on their way to achieve this can be plenty meaningful to them. After I had given my explanation of this to him, he politely thanked me but pointed out that I hadn’t really answered the question. He wanted to know, how do I, TRINA, make travel meaningful?
We’ve been to some of the most beautiful places in the world – cities, mountains, beaches, islands. Discovering new places certainly makes travel meaningful to me however after the 10th beautiful beach, my soul starts to crave for something else. Looking back to all the beautiful places that we have visited, I find the most meaning, gratitude, and awakening when I am able to leave a place with a greater understanding not only of the physical nature that makes up a particular location but with a greater understanding of the people who inhabit the place.
What it all comes down to is PEOPLE.
It’s the locals that you meet along your journey that bring a smile to your face when you start to miss home. It’s the fellow travelers that you meet on the road who inspire you to keep chasing your own dreams while they continue to chase their own. It’s the fellow travelers you meet on Instagram who are also trying to build something of their own. It’s the friends who journey out to meet you during your year adventure, and the memories you create together that will last a lifetime.
This is my meaningful travel. As I said, it’s different for everyone. So let me ask you, how do you make travel meaningful?