This I Believe

This I Believe

I believe in stepping outside your door to experience new places.
Camping and traveling have always been a passion of mine, and in my 17 years I’ve been more places than many have been in a life time. I find that it baffles me that I know people who have never been outside California or gone for a trek in the woods.  Many people are so caught up in daily routines they can’t seem to find time to take a day to go to the beach, visit a friend in another city or take their family out of the city and into the wilderness. They can’t seem to make that step out of the house and into the unknown or unanticipated.
 
I find that you gain new appreciation and knowledge every time you walk out your door to a new place. Today our environment is in poor health and I find that those who have not experienced nature don’t seem to understand just how dangerous that is. Without experiencing nature for yourself you miss out on the beauty of the planet and without it, you make it impossible to truly understand and appreciate it. You can find the real workings of thing around you.
When you travel around the world or even the country you get to taste the culture. By going to, lets say a foreign country; you get to experience the lives of people who are very different than you and whose environment is completely different than yours. Every time my family travels somewhere we gain so much by learning the histories and cultures of strange new places, making them seem like almost another planet. Sometimes you just can’t really appreciate having the simple things like clean water or bed until you see places that if you lived there you would be lucky to have them.
 
Whenever you travel you tend to learn not only about the people around you but also about yourself. You may find that you like something you’ve never tried before or that maybe you are truly interested in something you’ve never known about. You might find that someone you know is a totally different person than you thought they were and you may find that when you get home you love the people you left behind more than you did when you left.
 
When you experience new places you gain appreciation and knowledge, not only about place, but about yourself and those around you. Until you take that step outside you door you can never really be all that you can. Go ahead and try it, you might end up liking what you find.