What Traveling Taught Me About Myself
By: Dipali Gupta
Tags: Travel, Life Lessons, Travel Tips, Explore, Reflections

Experiences are more important to me than materialistic things.

I always thought that I wanted nice things, designer shoes, and handbags. I thought that once I had the ability to afford these luxuries, I would jump at them. I do want them still. But now that I have the ability to afford some of them- I don’t see myself waiting in line for the next Supreme drop. Rather, I find myself on Skyscanner, casually browsing flight tickets, or using Google Trips exploring their suggested day plans.

When I graduated, I rewarded myself with all my internship money to take a 35-day tour across Western Europe. If given the opportunity, I would choose to do that again and again.

My travel experiences are ingrained in my memory and will never wear out. I still remember the smell of coffee in Italy, the taste of the sweet and light macaroons in France, the sight of the imposing mountains in Switzerland, the touch of the warm Greek water, and the sound of the street musicians playing the guitar in Spain. These memories will never wash away and tiny reminders like the smell of string coffee can transport me back to that feeling I had when I was traveling.

This feeling of wandering and getting lost in cities is the sense of awe I feel when I walk down a street in a new city. It is magical, transporting, transformational.

I can be self-sufficient.

Traveling to another city is hard. There is a feeling of discomfort because you are out of your comfort zone and things are new and different. When I first embarked on my 35-day tour across Europe, I was in London and the London Bridge attack happened. Two days later, I was in Paris and there was an attack near Notre Dame. These were terrifying experiences, and something difficult to cope with as a first-time traveler to Europe.

But, I did not let those experiences put a damper on my plans. Rather, I used them as a learning experience. I became a little warier when wandering the streets to make sure I was safe and never walked alone at night. It probably seems like common sense to most people, but when you are 22 you feel invincible.

I also learned how to get around the city. I was lucky because many people speak English but there have been several times where I was in a location and just needed to navigate using my broken Spanish or pictures. It was difficult but I learned and picked up some cool words along the way. These experiences showed me that I have the capability of fending for myself and I don’t need that safety net.

The best part of traveling is all the people you will meet.

I love history, whenever I travel, I love to learn about the reason why and how a city evolved to the way it is now. I cannot tell you how much I fangirled over the fact that I was standing in Greek ruins where Aristotle probably walked.

But what I learned is that the people that tell me this story makes a huge difference. Some of the best people I have met and interacted with are the locals that stop and explain to me the history of the building I am walking into. Or my tour guide that has lived in the city for his whole life — recounting with so much passion how he saw this house being built since he was young. Or the waiter who thoroughly explains the process involved in making his favorite dish. Or the drivers taking you on a mini-tour as they drive you back to the hostel.

Traveling makes me realize how much I love people and makes me crave more interactions with people I don’t know. It is hard to find friendly faces in NY willing to take 2 minutes out of their day to explain directions to you. But when traveling people really show their love as they sprinkle your drops of water from their ocean-sized knowledge.

Planning is part of the fun.

Planning seems stressful, this is really the nuts and bolts of your trip as you detail out your extensive itinerary, frame them into time brackets, and hope you catch the train on time. But this is a huge part of traveling. Planning gets me excited about a place before I even get there. It allows me to learn about a place in more depth as I make tradeoffs on where to visit first in a particular city. The anticipation of visiting a new place is something so gratifying and fantasizing a city before getting there is such a magical feeling.