Traveling: An End to Excuses :: Wessex Scene Online

Traveling: An End to Excuses

25th June 2009
Matthew Jones

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One writer urges you to see travel as a chance for discovery and understanding

The legendary travel writer Paul Theroux once wrote, “Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travellers don’t know where they’re going”. With that insightful comparison, it seems clear that fulfilment of youth and passion can only truly come from the unknown.

As students in a developed nation, we are the lucky ones. Youth, freedom and time are firmly on our side. As a student body, we have all received education that the global majority can only dream of. We must ask ourselves: to what extent is an education valuable without perspective? To what extent have we received a well-rounded education if we know little of other cultures and customs? It seems that it is often forgotten that education extends much further than the lecture hall.

Travel is not just about seeing new places, or getting drunk in youth hostels. Travel is about discovery and understanding. Experiencing and truly appreciating cultural differences goes a long way in life. Developing a sense of understanding and tolerance is something truly special. It only takes one look at the morning papers to realize that a wider level of cultural acceptance and respect could only be a good thing.

The opportunities to travel are there for the taking. Endless possibilities are only hindered by the same tiresome excuses that people trick themselves into believing. Time is not money, time is free. There has never been a better time to travel, as the global recession makes the scrap for graduate jobs ever more difficult. As for the financial excuse, there are countless new ways whereby even inexperienced travellers have managed to see the world at minimal expense. The up and coming phenomenon of 'CouchSurfing.com' provides a social networking site on which people welcome house guests in destinations as far afield as Antarctica. Most potential travellers just need a push in the right direction. As the old Taoist maxim goes: “A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step”.