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Was travel part of your new year’s resolutions? Do you feel like you need to reshape your new year?
How about transforming some beliefs?
Now is your opportunity to embrace new perspectives, transform your perspectives, and reshape your new year, by exploring new horizons.
Travel still amazes me with its power to transform and inspire me.
February is the month we celebrate love. So why not travel with someone you love, or make travel the thing you love? Alone or with a loved one, you can give yourself the gift of travel and open doors you may never have seen before.
Growing up in the military meant our normal routine included a lot of travel. Moving every few years taught us to embrace new environments, new sets of friends, and even new cultures.
By the age of 11, I had already lived in 5 states, including California on the West Coast, Louisiana in the South, Michigan and Nebraska in the Midwest, and Arizona in the Southwest.
The most impactful travel of my childhood was after my Dad returned from Vietnam. We moved to England as his final Air Force assignment. This was travel on steroids.
Up to this point, local jaunts dotted our transient lives. Now we started our ultimate travel experience, leaving our home country for five years to live in a foreign land! Not only were the usual changes awaiting us, but a new culture would swallow us, plus our family would now be on the other side of the world. No family gatherings at holidays.
We moved in the spring of 1969. With the Vietnam War still raging, Americans were not always embraced overseas.
Our parents chose living on the economy. This meant living in a small British village near the base, so that we could immerse ourselves in British culture. This provided the unique opportunity to observe our home country from the outside, especially because our best friends were the British families we grew close to while living there.
Conversely, there were other American families stationed at the same base, who chose to live on base. Yes they would go to London to seek out the touristy sites and check those boxes, but they still saw the world through the narrow lens of Americans.
Travel creates an opportunity to reevaluate your own perspectives. People throughout the world have different ideas, morals, goals, and interpretations of world events.
In contrast to the base dwellers, my family witnessed the world through a wider lens. British eyes added new perspectives. This kind of immersion can sometimes be shocking but often lends itself to expanding perspectives.
I remember walking into the nearest village and a group of British boys yelled from across the street, “Go home Yankee!” because those particular lads didn’t want Americans in their country. That idea, that I wouldn’t be welcomed somewhere, was new to me.
This allowed me to understand that my views of the world are not necessarily everyone’s views. Those lads must have had some reason for feeling that way.
England had already enveloped my heart. The people and their culture became one with my soul. Though I was hurt by the boys’ actions, I still felt comfortable in my new life.
Overall, I learned that the British people I met were just like us, friendly, welcoming, family oriented, and just as interested to learn about us.
Everyday after school my sisters and I walked down the street from our house, to the horse farm which included a commercial piggery. It was a melting pot of local British kids and American kids. Our common interest was learning to ride and care for the horses.
Lunch times in the hayloft teemed with talking and laughing. Our British friends became our besties. My boyfriend throughout high school was British.
Although we lived off base, each morning we road the bus to attend school on base. My parents wanted to make sure we got an American education so as not to be behind when we left the UK. Our base schools were considered advanced, and were structured to enable us to transfer to any state’s school and be successful.
It was an eye opener for us to compare our school experiences with that of our British friends who attended local schools. Our friends’ curriculum seemed far more advanced and forward thinking then ours.
This motivated me to take on a more international flavor to my education. Subsequently, in ninth grade I added French to the German classes I had been studying since seventh grade. This began my love and appreciation of learning languages, and is an example of how travel reshaped my life and transformed my perspectives.
I have always treasured my foreign friendships and how my changed perspectives reshaped my global view of life,
When I travel now, I focus on chatting with the locals about life in their area and their viewpoints.
For example, I recently transplanted myself from the West Coast to the East Coast, a reshaping of my future.
Having lived most of my adult life in the Pacific Northwest, moving to the Southeast as an adult has enhanced my life with new experiences and is continually changing my perspectives. Hearing different accents, tasting new southern foods, and learning history from a southern perspective, has presented me with new experiences.
One of my recent experiences came from being imbedded in hurricane country.
In September of 2024, Hurricane Helene surprisingly changed course and rampaged through the western corners of the Carolinas. Plenty of media sources reported on the mass devastation and loss.
In California we experienced earthquakes and fires. As a new resident in hurricane country, I had never been exposed to this type of devastation.
In November we journeyed to Asheville, North Carolina for one of our day-tripping excursions. Even though the area wasn’t ravaged by the brunt of the storm, mass destruction still permeated the town.
Before the hurricane, the eclectic, riverfront, arts district offered a vibrant and creative mixture of art and eateries, which had now been reduced to a pile of rubble.
Upon our return to Asheville’s hub, we strolled through shop after shop, chatting with shop owners and workers, marveling at their resilience, unity and supportive spirit. Various shops hosted the displaced artists from the riverfront, displaying impressive offerings.
Some businesses and restaurants were fully functional, while others were struggling to maintain skeletal services, utilizing paper plates and plasticware because their dishwashers weren’t working, or offering slimmed down menus due to water shortages.
This is the deep dive side of traveling, getting to witness unfathomable hardship being met by a community with strength of solidarity in spite of political differences and diverse backgrounds. We journeyed home filled with admiration, inspiration, and respect for the people of this resilient community.
This type of travel outside the touristy traps and usual sites, provides new perspectives, and the opportunity of connecting with locals.
These types of experiences are not just relegated to global travel, but can be experienced in your own backyard.
A myriad of adventures await those who step out of their comfort zone and immerse themselves in the human condition.
Are you ready to step out of your comfort zone and immerse yourself in the human condition?
My goals for the new year continue to morph down a path of not touring, but to consciously travel, connecting with my fellow global citizens.
My hope for you is that you will also find a path that will not only allow you to tour, but to travel consciously and connect with your local and global citizens.
Life is short and precious.
Transform your life through immersive travel adventures.
Reshape your New Year’s resolutions.
Your life will never be the same.
Travel is magic!