What Travel does...

While I was sitting at the beach in Dahab, Egypt, looking over to the other shore of the Red Sea I had one of those moments again. I was looking at mountains in Saudi Arabia, a country that exists only on the map for me. With no synapse of my brain have I ever really thought about the country that is Saudi Arabia. I have never thought about going to Saudi Arabia. I don't want to go to Saudi Arabia and it's possibly not even one of the places I could go easily. Yet I was sitting there looking at it as if I could just swim over.

That moment I'm talking about is the feeling of complete awe about how you got where you are and that you never thought you would get there. You can interpret this sentence literally and wonder what lead your way to Egypt or reflect on how you became the person you are. Both considerations are highly insightful and educational. Now I had already been to Egypt twice before and vowed never to come back the last time so being in Dahab or in Egypt in general was surprising to me to start with. However, that feeling I mean is much bigger than being in a location you didn't expect to be in. The awe about how beautiful the world is makes me realize how lucky I am for being able to see it. Literally everything else doesn't matter...

I have very little money, never had much, but sacrificed a lot to go traveling when I was younger. Still, a girl at 25 years old has usually not been to 25 countries in the world. I was blessed both with the financial opportunity to go see some of the places I always wanted to see and the courage to do it by myself, on a budget, staying with creeps along the way and almost dying a couple of times. My biggest blessing, however, I consider the ability to learn from these experiences. It's not about seeing Saudi Arabia, saying "wow that's cool!" and moving on. It's the ability to let it sink in that I get to see the world I believe was created by someone special and let my "soul grow" in the process (Thanks for that expression, Paolo Coelho).

I remember a couple of moments in my life where seeing the beauty of the world virtually changed my life. Once I camped out in the Sahara for three days. It is commonly known that feeling solitude in the desert has a life-enhancing effect. One night the sky was littered with stars. I genuinely saw another world you could probably never see from the cities. Seeing that I was suddenly sure that there must be a God because it would be ridiculous to think that we're all there is while all that was in front of me. The other time I climbed up to Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro only to see the most beautiful panorama I have ever seen in my whole entire life. Beauty like this cannot be imagined. To this day it is hard for me to think back because memories don't even do it justice. All I remember is thinking "what have I done in life to deserve to feel this?"

I was blessed hugely in life and I am aware of it every day. Still, I'm just another human being that struggles to count the blessings rather than let negativity darken the goggles you use to look at life. While I was living in Glasgow I therefore made sure to go to the Highlands as often as I could, just me, a book and a sandwich, to remind myself that this beauty exists that makes you look at things differently. Once you see it you know you're blessed and that you have to force yourself to remember that. I tend to have to remind myself of this fact and therefore travel not because I want to see places only (in fact all I really want is to find a good place and stay there forever) but to experience my personal growth that would take me weeks and years otherwise. Travel is an educational process that should not be underestimated. Many of my travels have transformed me and that state of awareness has inspired me. I can only recommend for everyone to do the same...