Be a Better Person For It!

Most recently one of my great nephews traveled to Japan, and as Japan will do, it blew his mind! He caught the Japan bug (as we call it) and loved everything about it. I created this piece from subway maps we snagged in the stations over the years. The top portion is in Japanese and the bottom half is in English. I had fun navigating the diagrams and adding this quote. I think Mark Twain hit it right on the money with these words:

Travel is fate to 
prejudice, bigotry and 
narrow-mindedness. 

- Mark Twain 1910

Travel has always been a big part of my life. My first international trip was when I was thirteen. I have traveled to multiple continents and every trip is an adventure. I taught Leadership Development in Japan for more than eight years, traveling back and forth. During those trips we took different family members to be able to give them the gift of international travel. I call travel a gift, because besides it being an adventure, it is a wonderful way to step outside your own life and discover how other people live. If you think you are all that and a bag of chips, try holding this map and being able to figure out which train to take…you will be able to do it, yet it will humble you instantly!

We spend so much of our lives going back and forth to the same places, week after week, day after day. Daring to step outside your normal environment forces us to release our boundaries and face how small we are in this vast planet on which we live. My wish for you would be to travel ANYWHERE that is beyond your day to day life. Go to a small town, a big city, the desert, the mountains, ride a train or take a cab with a driver who does not speak English…or speaks an English you do not understand! You WILL learn, you will have adventures, you will get lost, and you will eat food you may love or food you never want to taste or smell again! And you will be changed. It is hard to remain prejudiced when someone you thought you wouldn’t dare mix with shows you kindness when you are lost, afraid or sick. You will lose your prejudices, bigotry and narrow-mindedness. And somewhere in all of that you will find a new version of yourself.

So, stop spending your time online and put down your phone. Go somewhere. Meet new people, try weird foods, get lost, and learn to laugh at yourself. Travel in a train, walk, ride a bike, and enjoy feeling free and uneasy all at the same time. You will be amazed at the person you are inside and it will broaden your perceptive…and you will be a better person for it!