In this blog post, I will talk about the value of the journey of self-reflection and how traveling adds meaning to our lives.
Is there any other word that makes you feel as good and excites you as much as the word “travel”? The thrill of a plane running on the runway to take off, the periodic sound of wheels heard when a train runs on the tracks, the scenery passing by outside the window, none of these can be missed. Traveling is a moment when you become a spectator and look at the world, taking a break from your busy life as the main character. If someone asks me what I think they should do, I would say, without hesitation, “Go on a trip.” I can confidently say that traveling is what will make you grow the most, more than anything else.
Traveling does not necessarily mean making a plan and going on a long trip for a few days. It can be walking down a road you don’t usually take, taking a bus back, or sitting on a bench you’ve passed by every day and losing yourself in thought. If you can escape from your familiar, busy daily life for a while and observe the world we live in, that alone is enough to be considered a trip. I prefer the bus, which allows me to see the changing scenery outside the window, even if it takes a little longer and is a little more roundabout than the subway. It is easy to get lost in thought while watching the scenery of people’s daily lives pass by, and when I want to clear my mind of the clutter, I can become a spectator for a while and watch the world without a care in the world. People may have different reasons for traveling, but I travel for these reasons. Travel requires movement. In order to see something new and escape from the familiar, you have to move, whether by train or bus. It’s good to just look out the window while traveling and enjoy the scenery that passes by without thinking, and it’s even better to think deeply about things that you normally don’t have time to think about.
I don’t like covering my ears with earphones while I’m on the move. Not only does it get in the way of my thinking, but if I keep my ears open, I can hear the stories of people living in different regions. It happened on the train to Tokyo. The carriage was empty when I left Osaka, but it started to fill up as we passed Nagoya. Inside the train, people were having fun talking to each other. I was filling my time alone with earphones, but I started to listen to their laughter. Listening to their stories about their lives, the economy, and their children, I felt less lonely on my solo trip and was comforted by their familiar dialect.
It is another pleasure to encounter unexpected things while traveling. This happened when I was traveling to Florence, Italy. When it was time for the museums to close, I rushed to the nearby Bargello Museum, but instead of going to the exhibition hall, I headed to the garden. There, an unknown pianist was playing the piano as if he were conversing with the famous sculptures. The thrill and excitement of that moment kept me there until the end of the performance. I could feel the passion and joy of doing something you truly love in his facial expressions and movements. That look made me think about what I really love and what I’ve been so passionately immersed in. This experience was a sedative that calmed the excitement of the trip.
When traveling, you sometimes encounter unpleasant experiences. But even those experiences are meaningful. While traveling in Italy, I often felt frustrated by the slow-moving staff. Not only at ordinary stores, but also at museum ticket offices and train station staff, they work leisurely and sometimes treat people bluntly. But, strangely enough, I was the only one who seemed anxious in that situation. After realizing this, I couldn’t help but feel angry. Is “quickly” really the answer? Isn’t there a saying about the beauty of slowness? I started to think about whether I was missing anything while living a fast-paced life, watching their relaxed appearance. It was not at all strange that the Slow City movement originated in Italy. When I look at their carefree attitude, I feel the curiosity and confidence of the time when Italy once dominated Europe.
There is a saying that it is better to see something once than to hear it a hundred times. I’ve heard a lot about the Grand Canyon in the United States or the Jungfrau in Switzerland through books or videos, but no matter how hard I try to put it into words, I cannot convey the emotions I felt when I actually saw the scenery. This is an emotion that can be felt not only when traveling abroad to see the vast scenery of nature, but also when looking up at the scenery from a hill in a park near your home or looking at a river from a hill in Olympic Park. What is important is not the scale or grandeur of nature, but realizing that the gray structures that we see every day trapped in a forest of buildings are not the whole world. We start to think about how we can broaden our horizons. Escaping from the daily routine, seeing new things, experiencing new environments, and experiencing them firsthand will help us break free from narrow-minded thinking. These experiences are not limited to nature. The same thrill and excitement can be felt when viewing historical and cultural sites and works of art, such as the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, the pyramids of Egypt, and the Colosseum in Rome. The trip that gave me these various experiences made me realize that different cultures are not different from each other, but rather different, and it has fostered in me a mind that is more considerate and understanding of each other. When I travel abroad, I try to blend in with the local lifestyle as much as possible. I walk the same streets as the locals, buy fruit from the same supermarket, and go to restaurants frequented by locals rather than famous restaurants that are crowded with tourists. This is because I can experience the culture from the locals’ perspective for a short period of time.
The most memorable trip for me was the first one I took alone. At the time, I had just finished my military service and went on a 14-night, 15-day trip to Vietnam. At that time, I didn’t have any big worries, but it was a good opportunity to look back on myself. When you travel alone, you have to solve all situations on your own, and there are times when you have to talk to strangers. Going through these situations, I gained confidence that I can do it alone. I also used to carry a notebook around with me and write down even the smallest thoughts to organize my thoughts. Among them, there is a note that I still remember. “When things that were awkward at first become familiar, we move on to find another place. People often compare love to a journey because the process of learning something new is similar. Then, when love also becomes familiar, do we move on again?”
When I return from a trip, I feel as if I had never really been there. I return to the daily grind, remembering the beautiful sunset, the cool sea breeze, and the open fields like a dream. My appearance is no different from before the trip, but my mind and thoughts, which remember that faint dream, are certainly different from before the trip. Travel is a teacher who teaches me the past, a learning ground where I can feel the present, and a warm embrace that allows me to think about and plan for the future.
