It has been a while since most of us have traveled very far from home. With vaccinations and life settling into a new normal, travel is now a topic people are choosing to explore. Whether it is leaving your town, your state or your country, being able to travel opens up the world beyond our own front door. And no matter how long we are gone travel provides the opportunity to see new places and experience new things.
We’ve all been places where someone expects the place they are visiting to be just like home. Same menu, same luxuries, same basic sights. They behave badly and leave a foul mark for their countrymen in the hearts of the people they meet. They are loud, obnoxious, rude and have no regard that they are a guest in someone else’s valued space. They behave like they are entitled and embarrass those of us who are from the same place. I have met too many rude Americans and usually apologize for their behavior to every staff member I have seen them abuse.
There is a great skill to blending in, enjoying without being demanding and appreciating the strange or different sights and sounds of a place. Watching people, watching families interact, watching the crowds wander around the market. No matter the place there is always the kid who falls behind because they are enjoying their new toy or an ice cream cone. There is the woman who’s shoes are hurting her feet so she feels cranky and walking slowly, pausing at every bench of wall for a quick rest. And there is the man reading the map or taking photographs while the rest of the family charges ahead quickly leaving him behind. No matter the culture people are basically the same.
As this quote reminds us I learn more about myself and what I value when I observe what other people’s lives are like. Travel is the best way to be thankful, be astonished and be educated that not every life is like your own. Go out there are see what you can see NOT just what you plan to see. People will surprise you and remind you of your own relatives all at the same time, especially when there is ice cream involved.
Ann Art Gallery Blog 