Nowadays, with technology and advance transportation being spread and used globally, traveling has became an essential in our lives. Traveling is a very interesting and vague topic, such as the significance and meaning, the pros and cons, and the word “travel” can also be defined and interpreted in many ways. On May 6th of 2024, our ELL class had a seminar about the topic of “Why Travel?”. We had quotes prepared and reviewed for the seminar, as well as our own thoughts about the topic were shared. 

     Throughout the process of the seminar, I personally think that I did reasonably good, being one of the main contributers to the discussion. This is also evident through the score our English teacher gave me, which was an 8, proving that my performance is also approved by someone that does English as a profession. Despite of my great score and decent performance, a seminar requires great amount of students participating. Therefore, regardless of my ideas shared in the seminar, I still have small amounts of thoughts that was not shared fully. Below is my thoughts and ponders of the topic of “Traveling”:

     When we decide or do something, there is always a reason or a meaning behind it, so what are the benefits and significance behind traveling? From the famous book A Hat Full of Sky, the author, Terry Prachett stated “Why do you go away? So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving”. Terry Prachett explains that with traveling, we would get the opportunity to see different things, to learn the things that we have never encountered before. Despite this, more importantly, Terry Prachett emphasizes that with meaning behind traveling is to be different. As humans, we are changing every minute of our lives, no matter if it’s physical growth, or mental changes, but with the same environment and surroundings around us, we are only able to interact with the people and things in our bubble. However, stepping out of our comfort zone would give us new ideas and new experiences, to have “new eyes and extra colors”, therefore changing us to be different while improving, and can come “back to where you started is not the same as never leaving”. 

    From the philosophy book The Alchemist, a lot of interesting ideas and thoughts were shared out of it. Back to the question of “Why Travel?, another possible reason for travelers to travel is to achieve something, or to “find your treasure”(The Alchemist).  The main character, Santiago, had a dream of a treasure, decided to go on a journey to find it, and during the process, the treasure, or perhaps we could call it his “dream” was the motivation for his long journey. A dream can release the maximum potential in one, and the first women to win 3 gold medals in a single Olympics, Wilma Rudolph once said: “Never underestimate the power of dreams.” In the seminar, we discussed about the idea of “Maktub”, basically destiny. This not only is a wild idea that contradicts with the majority of people, stating that everything is the “destiny”, and is all planned out, but also leads to further questions that could be further pondered, such as “Are we able to change our destiny?”, “If our destiny is unchangeable, then why do anything since nothing is changeable”. Lastly, at the ending of The Alchemist, Santiago found his treasures. However, he realized that the most valuable thing he got is not the treasure, which is the result, but the experience gained, which is the process. A lot of times in life, we are so intrigued in the results, but neglects the valuable experience gained from the process. The author gives the idea that for traveling or trying to achieve a dream, the process is actually where we gain, learn, and be different, instead of the results. 

     Despite the points I’ve made above, let’s approach “travel” and “journeys” in a different perspectives. On this, I had an interesting and outrageous idea that has difference with the “travels” and “journeys” that we were discussing about. My idea is that we are traveling nonstop. When we think of journeys, the the first things we would think of is vacation and going to different places. However, if we approach “journey” in a philosophyical way, our life is a journey, the journey never stops and never ends from the day we get born until our death. If we approach “traveling” and “journey” in a more boring way, according to the dictionary, “travel” is defined as “go from one place to another, typically over a distance of some length.” Therefore, us going from our house to school is considered traveling, us going from room to room is considered traveling, so we are traveling nonstop. Then what about the people that are disabled, don’t they stop traveling? Moving our hands from left to right can be considered traveling, our blood in our body flowing can be considered traveling. This is exactly what I meant in my introduction when I said that traveling and journeys could be defined and interpreted in many different ways, there is not an end to the new ideas of “traveling” and “journeys. Back to my point of “we can never stop traveling”, it’s only about if we travel more or travel less. With more travel, we are able to have more opportunities and possibilities in life, which is more risk. With less travel, there is less opportunities and possibilities in life, which is less risk. In most cases, people are afraid to travel and explore new things that they have never encountered before, is because of the fear of risk. Different people have different mindsets, some people loves taking risks, some people don’t, and it is totally one’s free choice, but hear me out. Nothing in life is for sure, except for our death. The worst thing that taking risks is going to do, is us dying, but why does that matter when we are going to die for sure. If we take risks, we die, if we don’t take risks, we still die. Therefore, taking risks is a part of life that makes our lives more interesting and motivated, and is amindset that leads to success.

     Those are my thoughts on the topic of “Travel”, what are your thoughts? Comment down below 😀

(Some random picture I found on google)

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