I had always heard that travel helps in developing one’s
personality, which I never believed until I took my first solo trip. Having
read a lot of posts about positive things in life, I had to overcome my
pessimistic side. It was high time that I started looking at the bright side of
things, people, and places because I had started feeling too gloomy. Things
that gave happiness to people made me worried. Finally, I decided to go for a
solo road trip and then group trips, lots of them. Let me share how travel
changed a naysayer into an optimist.
Not comparing myself
Before I went out of Mumbai, I always used to think of the
bigger car my colleague has, the diamond rings on the hand of my sister, and
the posh house of my neighbor. No matter how hard I tried to ignore all these
materialistic possessions people had, I would always find myself feeling awful
about not having them, even though I lead a decent lifestyle. While traveling
around Kerala, I saw the happiness on the faces of deprived kids. People in the
villages had very little compared to what I had, but they did not want to have
anything from me. Not even once I heard them saying that my watch was
glittering or my car was looking so good. On the other hand, I had heard myself
talking like that to myself and others. Those scenarios in Kerala and many
other naturally beautiful places taught me that there was no use comparing my
life to that of others because there will always be someone richer or poorer
than me.
Getting out of the
comfort zone
Staying in a campsite near Pune taught me to survive outside
my comfort zone. At that place, we did not have proper toilets, water was scarce
and very expensive, food choices were not there, and we had limited clothes
with us. Until that vacation, I had always stayed in hotels, traveled in a Self-Drive Car Rental or a friend’s
car, and ate at restaurants while carefully selecting from an assortment of
foods. However, staying in the camp taught me that I should not take my
possessions for granted and I learned to find bliss out of my comfort zone,
which was my office and home.
Not being lazy
Travel is not cheap, and that I knew already. Perhaps that
is why; I never went for a vacation for so many years of my job life. Thanks to
my friend, Rohan, who pushed me to travel with him because he did not have
company. We went to Indonesia, which was certainly expensive, and we could not
afford to sleep in the hotel rooms. Rohan was very excited about visiting each
place marked on his itinerary, and I had to comply because we had limited time
in hand. We made the best use of our days and nights in that gorgeous country,
and returned home with our phones loaded with photos. Looking back at those
memories, I thank myself for not being too lazy to move beyond the beaches.
The best thing that travel has taught me is that I should
never doubt my capabilities. I used to spend a lot of time thinking negatively
about the things that I wanted to accomplish, but hesitated to even begin. I
always wanted to learn dance, but I thought that I would not be able to move my
body. Traveling to Kerala gave me the
confidence to dance and I enrolled in the classes as soon as I returned. This
is a good number of accomplishments, for sure, and many more to come.
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