Traveling is a critical moment in one’s self. If privileged enough to travel, I think a lot can be gained from cultural exchange and altered perspective. Traveling as a means of tourism verses traveling as a means of immersion can be more detrimental to others and self. If you are traveling in order to connect and to be humbled by other ways of existing and experiencing culture verses to impose your own values and demand or to feel entitled, then there’s no room for growth or healthy discourse. I have traveled to a few places but I have spent a great amount of time confronting distortions by the society I was raised within when traveling.
I lived in Paris for almost two years and Amsterdam for four months. I spent shorter lengths of time in Haiti, Senegal, Mexico, UK, Belgium, Jamaica, Bermuda. I look forward to traveling more and to absorbing more of the earth into my consciousness as a spiritual means of traveling.
I encourage you to travel. A lot of folks got opinions about things. My opinion isn’t of grave importance unless of course I say something that resonates with you and whatever you may be feeling. When I was facing a very tough time in my young life with family, relationships, and work: traveling provided me the space to breathe in a new perspective and to discover many possibilities. It made me more responsible and aware of the scope of human perseverance and resilience and it connected me to a world consciousness that i didn’t recognize prior to traveling. Depression is not something to be afraid of. Find something you love and recognize that it exists in people all around you, all over the world people are awaiting the opportunity to be proven utterly and beautifully human. We all struggle with self and ideas about that in relation to what society makes us believe we ought to be doing and feeling. Perhaps, this is a crucial time for you to recognize that your job does not make you or break you but that losing it, provides you the opportunity to transition into new meanings for your self, new journeys. When one door closes, another one opens.