Travel as an Investment to Broaden Mind

By Sayyidskiy November 05, 2015 Holiday, Inspirasi

“Id, you travel a lot. Why wouldn’t you save your money for your future? Don’t you want to get married?”

That rhetorical question, always comes up to me after seeing my darkened skin after national holiday or kejepit holiday. Does future always have something to do with money? No, Man. In this case, I’m not in line with him. Life isn’t always about collecting pennies.

There is more than that.

“Where’d you go? Another mountain? Beaches?” He continued.

“Man, this world is like a book. If you don’t travel, you only read one page. If you never go anywhere, you'll have a very limited view of the world.” Quoted from somewhere over the internet.

Not all of us can travel the whole globe, of course. Furthermore, we are Indonesian. You know what it means, don’t you? Unfortunately, if you’re not as rich as Syahrini or Bella Sophie, travelling around the globe is going to be bloody hard. But I think, just by making travel a priority — even to a new place around us — can be eye-opening. Going to the nearest museum, for instance. You convince yourself life is just fine without reading the book. You live each day in your comfort zone, never venturing too far from home. You fill your hours, days, and weeks with routine tasks, events, and traffics. Most of the time, you are satisfied, doing the same things, interacting with the same people, and thinking the same thoughts. Both your sphere of influence and your world view remain small, and that’s how you like it.

Now let me ask a question. Which one would you prefer, hanging out with people who know about anything, and comfortably talk to them about any kinds of topics or those who only know a little about what the hell is going on in the world right now and feel baper at almost anytime? I can spend hours talking to people who believe that investment to our life isn’t only money.

The book, would open our eyes to people and places we never knew existed. It would open our mind to new ideas, and would open our heart to what lies beyond our own horizon. So would traveling, there is a number of ways that travel can broaden one’s mind. One of my favorite is the opportunity to learn new language and culture. Given that different cultures have widely varying views on what is important and how to go about living life, learning another language can give invaluable insight into these differences and help us to suggest alternatives to our own view of life.

Another way that travel can help to broaden our mind is simply to humble us. Given the difficulties that arise from not knowing a language or situation where we need help to get by, we will learn more about our own limitations, which is a gooooood way to broaden our mind. Me, as a Moslem in Indonesia, I can perform prayer at anywhere I want. I feel so right because almost all people are doing the same things as I did.

Back in May 2015, I traveled to Cambodia and Thailand which we all know that islam is a minority. Today, I'm so grateful to be a majority of people here in Indonesia because it's my home, I understand the people, I know everything inside out. Street vendors are selling their food in every corner of the town. I won't be afraid missing my sholat since mosques are found everywhere. When I was there, it was so hard to search for a mosque and halalan thoyyiban food.

*** *** ***

2 weeks ago, I missed my early flight from Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta after watching Sepang Moto GP. I should’ve flown at 7 A.M. but I was still on my way to check in counter at 6. What went wrong? Nothing, it was just about the timing. I miscalculated the time required to get to immigration check, etc. You know what? I was quite happy though because I saw it as an opportunity to discover the city more.

But deep down inside, I crumbled. I just didn’t want to show it to my fellow traveler. What I did was search for a new ticket, and a hostel for another night.

I was smiling beyond the mask

Beyond all that, travel can broaden our mind by simply being a challenging thing that causes us to think critically and problem solve. When we travel, we have to figure out budget, map out an itin, and do many other things that require a great deal of thought and planning. Moreover, be prepared if anything goes out of the line, like; miss your flight, lost your luggage, break up with your girlfriend, etc.