Year ago, while working a catering job I struck up a conversation with a gentlemen in his 50s. He'd been away from his Central New York roots for many years and recently returned. The catering job was a way for him to gradually get his footing before figuring out what to do next; a sentiment I'd grow all too well to appreciate in the years to come.
"I been all over the world," I remember him saying. "What have you learned?" I asked. He paused before picking his words carefully. "Your problems follow you wherever you go,"he told me.
I can't recall a word we said afterwards and would be hard pressed to describe him to a sketch artist but for whatever reason I never forgot his observation. I suppose it's because in the 44 countries I've visited his theory remains infallible.
Just as travel is not the answer to enlightenment it is also not the antidote to one's woes, however small or complicated. Travel can offer a megaphone to the voices within that we so skillfully silence in our day-to-day lives when feeling isn't convenient.
Because you have the time to really think when you're abroad you can begin to take inventory of just about everything in your life -- the ups, downs, and in-betweens.
It is difficult work but important work. It's also so worth doing. For on the other side comes perspective.
And if we make room for it GROWTH.
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