Why does someone choose to travel? Whether it’s across the world or an hours drive, the reasons for travelling are subjective to each person. For some, travelling can be a means to see the beauty of the world, learn a new culture, perhaps it’s to grow as a person and foster independence. While everyones traveling formula contains bits of pieces of reasons to go I feel as though everyone travels to make connections. For me, I search for unfamiliar places, even areas I find uncomfortable, because when you put yourself in such positions you naturally drive yourself towards what you find comfortable, and almost universally, this is other people. Not only does it benefit you to meet other people travelling, but for most part, you depend on it. It’s difficult to put your finger on but when you’re outside of your comfort zone you’re more open to learning, sharing, discussing ideas, and making connections with ‘strangers’. It leads to restless nights, empty bottles of wine, and discussions about universalities, and thoughts you probably have only shared with a chosen few whom you trust. It’s a funny thing how we sometimes need to travel 5,000km in order to make human connections, when really we could just walk 10 minutes to a local pub or coffee shop in a town we’ve lived in for 20 years.

At home, it just seems more difficult. We’re surrounded by comforts; our home, friends we’ve grown up with, a job, our family. We don’t really have a drive or necessity to make connections with new people. Of course on a daily basis we interact with people we meet, however, generally these interactions are just scratching the surface of our thoughts. While social media can allow us to connect to thousands of people, generally it has made people more reclusive. Sitting alone at home you get a sense that you’re interacting with other people, but it’s a false sense of interaction, and is fostering a culture of shallow relationships. I say that as I write a blog that could be read by people I’ve spoken to once, or don’t know at all!

For now, I’m able to travel and create scenario’s for myself that allow me to make meaningful connections to those around me. But I do feel that the ultimate goal would be to make these connections on a much more local basis, in places where you have developed a daily routine and are surrounded by comforts. We need far less ‘likes’ or comments on facebook, and far more human interaction.