do you feel deeply changed by your travels or is it just another hobby?i ask because i never travelled much and i don't know what i'm missing
Traveling to Thailand seriously changed my mind.
I stopped being suicidal, stopped dating women and realized that true love can be only found with ladyboys.
Once I cut off all dating and relationships with women, I became much more relaxed person.
A lot of guys I know take a year out to travel the well beaten path of SEA and Australia then come home and pick up exactly where they left off, doing the same old shit.
So no - I wouldn't say travel deeply changes most people.
>>1194567
Any Anon here who got more confident after having traveled?
I hope it will make me more confident, because I see it as a challenge to go out there completely on my own trying to make my way in a foreign environment.
>>1194578
I think the biggest accomplishment about most traveling is your fulfilling a goal
Working to save up money for an intended purpose, and then doing it provides you with a purpose for a time
But by the same measure as saving up 20k to go away for a year, saving up 20k for a new car is the same thing.
My only real change is I've noticed how arbitrary everything in society is, by seeing a different one that still functions. Culture shock is a well known process though, wasn't a big discovery.
>>1194567
>>1194576
I was not deeply changed, no. But it did increase my confidence in myself. Traveling on my own, and successfully getting from one side of the planet to the other, to a very specific location, and actually being able to do the things I planned to do really made me feel more confident in myself. Everything worked out the way I wanted, and it wasn't a complete disaster, and that made me feel good. Like, I didn't need my parents or anyone else to hold my hand if that makes sense. It's like before, I'd set up these imaginary barriers around myself about what I can and can't do. What is and isn't realistic. But traveling kind of pushed those barriers out further, and made me realize I can do more than what I give myself credit for, if that makes sense? I dunno. I'm not too good with words.
>>1194578
If you see it as a challenge, you're 20% there. After that you don't chicken out, don't take the easy way, don't be lazy and don't be a weak bitch. In my case all of them are challenges and overcoming makes me more confident.
Travel is not a miracle the way some people say it is but it does have a major effect on your life and by that changes who you are. The thing is, for most people, just going on a trip once or twice a year isn't going to make much of a difference. Maybe you open up a little but because the trip deadline is often on your mind the effect will be small as you think back to your regular life.
If you want travel to change you, leave everything behind and move somewhere else. Live like the locals do, adjust yourself to your new life and lifestyle. If things work out stay longer, if they don't move on to somewhere else. The thing about traveling is that if you fuck up you can go somewhere else where they don't know about your fuckups. You can keep playing your fresh slate until you get it right.
I'm kinda on this type of trip now. I'm going to be gone for a few years and try my hand at a few things I wouldn't dare to attempt back home. After only a few months I already see a difference in me, I just need to get better at what I'm trying to accomplish now. The only worry I have is going back home some day and not following through with what I have learned and will learn on this trip.
i just feel i learned a lot more than just reading books.
i mean i was into history and art while i was within the borders of my home country (mostly my hometown) already, travel still gave this context to everything i learned that i find invaluable. as if all the fragments aligned into a more complete picture finally. when i didn't learn shit about a country and its people beforehand, i mostly left knowing nothing, too, things just didn't stick. (so i always try to read up as much as possible.)
every trip adds to my street smartness bible, too. all sorts of tricks to learn everywhere. again it's only possible cause even at home i knew many things already.
>>1194567
I went to guatemala to do humanitarian help. paint schools, make cement floor for people who lived on dirt, things like that.
In february im going to india with less than 300$. One way trip.
Did travel change me? Nah.
But it awoke me to want i really wanted of life. I always knew i would love it. I was even afraid it might change my future plans dramatically. And it did. So i wanted this change deep down even before travelling to "different realities".
To be more formal, psychology says that every experience changes you even if you dont think about it. But thats just the flow of life, its how we develope as a person. Traumas though? They will change you, for bad or for good, but they will.