I think that something truly amazing happens only when we travel. It goes beyond seeing beautiful places, making memories and taking great pictures.
It’s something that happens within us. When we cross borders, we see new places, different people and difference cultures. And everything we see, feel and experience passes through our internal filters. We all have many filters that were painted in different shades by our personal experiences, our families, our education, religion and social rules. That’s normal and we all unconsciously do that.
But if you travel with your eyes open, an open mind and an open heart, you can put aside some of those filters. You take your “camera” from your eyes and see beyond the lenses and the filters. When that happens, you see something remarkable: that we are all human.
You see that beyond all those ideologies, beliefs and misconceptions we are all the same. We all fear poverty, ill health and broken hearts. We all crave attention, respect and love. We all have dreams we hold on to so we can give this life a meaning. We all want to be understood, accepted and love for who we are and in spite of who we are.
When you experience that, something inside you changes. If you understand and accept that we are all human and all the same, you begin to see how foolish we are. You realize that things such as discrimination, ignorance, selfishness and wars are all meaningless.
All that desire to prove that YOU are the best, that YOUR country is the best starts to fade. And what is left is the understanding that we are all human. And you can’t help but think of all the other souls out there and wish them all the best. You hope that they’ll be safe, that they’ll find acceptance and love and that they will chase their dreams and make this world a little bit better just because they live in it. That is my wish for you.