The first time i ever really travelled outside of Ghana was 2009. Growing up in an African home, traveling was something one never did. If anything it was discouraged. People did not travel for leisure or adventures. People only travelled because they needed to attend a certain function or fulfill an invitation and that always stuck with me. Here is a little insight into how traveling changed me.

Traveling was never something i was interested in. At a pointed in my young life i wanted to become a flight attendant. I want to be everywhere and for a while i wanted to pursue it but that was way after i started to grow into myself and began to see traveling differently.

Young Adwoa was used to living in a tiny and well-known environment It made her feel safe. She loved that bubble because she knew every face and everyone knew hers. She had walked every inch of that bubble that she could find her way to her spout even with blindfolds on. Her environment was safe, familiar and predictable so she was content until the day she dreaded came knocking at her bubble castle and every thing changed. Here are 5 things I have learned.

I learned to accept change

When it finally hit me that i was going to leave everything i knew behind for a new one, i was in denial. I did not want it to happen and I tried talking my parents out of it. On one hand an opportunity to visit the most beautiful country in the world where i knew no one nor spoke the language and the on the other hand my own paradise in which i was a true princess. Honestly i didn’t have much of a choice and so i had to accept it. I had to tell myself things i didn’t believe yet. I had to tell myself everything was going to be fine, that i was going to connect easily with people and make new friends. In short i was going to create another paradise and boy was it a ride. My first real life changing experience was when i moved to a different country. That change was so different and so heavy. It’s one thing to travel within your own country but it is another to visit a completely new country and even worse settle in that country.

I became more open-minded

Traveling teaches you to become open-minded. Why? Because you become confronted with other realities. Traveling taught me that other things existed outside what i could see. Hearing is not the same as experiencing. Everything i knew about other cultures i was conditioned to judge them as inferior or superior without really experiencing them. Traveling thought me that you cannot judge a book by its cover and different realities exist out there. The world is a beautiful place because it’s vast and it is when you open your eyes to these difference that you will make sense of your environment and the people around you.

I learned to become sociable

I am super reserved but there has been so many instances where i have gone out of my way to talk to people and listen to their experiences. These encounters most often than not resulted in amazing discoveries. One of the most beautiful things about traveling is socialising with locals and non-locals over simple drinks, exploring together or by engaging in a just a conversation. It really hits different. You try it. There is something about you a new environment that boosts your social skills.

I learned to be tough and independent

Almost everyone has experienced a time when their flight was delayed or cancelled or they lost their luggage—and the beauty in this frustrating moment is that it teaches you to deal with it. The sooner you learn to roll with whatever challenges come your way, the sooner you’ll be carefree, happy to move onto your next new adventure. Italy was the first country i ever traveled to and experience is a whole book to write about but all of the things i had to deal with has contributed to how i handle certain situations. With time you start to understand that somethings are not worth getting upset about and so you get moving. If you are in a foreign country you learn to do a lot of things by yourself including documentations because no one will do it for you. You learn to find your way in and out of things.

I learned more about the countries

Travel teaches you to unplug, explore and discover places. I learned so much about culture and history of countries by visiting the countries themselves rather than learning about them in a classroom. I hated history in my high school days but gained more appreciation for history, art and culture of a country by experiencing the remains of that history, by going to museums, by going to historic sites and experiencing the beauty or the not so beautiful part of a country.

By connecting to these places, i also learned about myself and connected with my inner self more.

If you liked this post, let me know how traveling has impacted you as well.