How did leaving home/travelling change you?

Question

Did you ever leave your hometown and venture out into the world alone? Go travelling around the world? Move out of your home to live somewhere on the other side of the world?

Tell me your expieriences. Tell me what this did for you and how it changed you as a person. =)

Answer 1

Moving around is a big part of my personality.  I have lived in different parts of Europe and a few states in the US.  I have never attended a school for longer than 2 years and lived in multiple different situations, with multiple amounts of people, and by myself.

What I like about myself is that I adapt to new situations/atmospheres very quickly and painlessly.  I am able to  make friends easily and I don't sufferer from social anxieties.  At the same time, I let go of friend very easily and I don't feel attachment to people or physical possessions.  

I would say that not really believing that I have a home or a base that is constant is something that gives me a lot of freedom, but at the same time makes me feel un-grounded.  I can see how others in my situation could panic or go into depression, but I have content for the situation and find it limitless in possibilities.  

So, in summary...  Places have no meanings...  Everything has to do with your reaction to the places where you are.  Furthermore, the reaction you have to a place you see is completely up to you.

Answer 2

I have learned that there is REAL poverty in the world.

Also, traveling for a living has made me a real impatient ******...................

Answer 3

I've travelled across many continents. I've learned to be very grateful to be an American but at the same time, sometimes ashamed to be from a country where people are so self-centered.  We only learn one language and butcher that one.  I can travel thousands of miles and still have people speak to me in English because I can't speak their language.

Answer 4

it made me become more independent and i became a women

Answer 5

I've lived in two countries ... Canada and the US.  I've traveled widely in three countries, including Mexico.  I've lived in the Pacific Northwest most of my life, and I love it here ... but I do know that I could adapt to living ANYWHERE, and could even live 'native' in places where people live in huts and grow their own food.  I learned to 'walk properly' from an Indian 'medicine man' when I had to wear braces and orthopedic shoes when I was in elementary school, because my grandfather knew the tribe and knew that living with the tribe and going to 'Indian school' would teach me to walk better (I got rid of both the braces and the shoes as soon as I got home, with the doctor's AMAZED permission) after only four weeks.  I love going to new places and getting to know the 'real people' as they really live, not as a person who wants to 'tell them' how to live, but to learn from them.  My grandfather was the person who taught me this, not the 'travel' I had to do throughout my life ... but it was because my grandfather was the truly GREAT man he was, I am a much better, and much better traveled person than many who have been 'around the world' but who didn't learn, grow, and change every time they met new people who had a 'different culture' from my white, upper middle class upbringing ...

Answer 6

Well, I didn't go alone, but travelling with school through the music program to Cuba for a week was definitely an eye-opener. Both musically and culturally. The music student are so focused in their studies. We performed for a bunch of elementary and secondary schools and believe me, they were a-m-a-z-i-n-g!!! So focused so geared towards every fine detail, it was like listening to a professional group preform!! We also did humanitarian type duties there as well, just giving out care packages for the kids, and their eyes just lit up!! So touching! Definitely changed my views on life and how freaking lucky I am to have the bare essential for living.

Answer 7

you feel grateful knowing all the things you have available for free. In cuba, they're working their asses off as maids to buy bread when this isnt that much of a problem here is it?

Answer 8

I lived in China for several years as a student.  I learned a foreign language, got engaged, and can now cook some badass gongbao jiding.

Answer 9

yes.  i had to leave my home after hurricane katrina hit.  i was with my mom and dad and all of our pets.  i didnt think it would be a big deal...i thought we would go for a few days and come back....but no.  the night we left, the night before the hurrican hit, was the last time i would see anything i call normal for about 2 years.  the hurricane hit and took off half our roof, and broke a window.  we thought we were kinda lucky considering we still had a house.  yet, 2 weeks later when we allowed to come back in, we walked into a house full of water.  our house flooded.

this changed me as a person COMPLETELY!  i have a new found respect for life.  i no longer take for granted the simple things.  i now relaize that possessions are just that...possessions.  for the most part, they have no meaning.  the pictures and memories are the things that have the meaning.  the family members i sit here today with are the meaning.  going through this changes everything.  i hope no one else every experiences what we have....it aint nothing fun at all.