Travel Experiences

56. Discuss how your travel experiences have affected you as a student and a citizen of the world.

A couple of hours ago, I went to watch our annual spring play. This year, the drama production decided to perform the comedy, Around the World in 80 Days. This play is about a man who gambles with people in his society who states that it is impossible to go around the world in 80 days. It was given in the newspaper, and everyone was saying that it was impossible to do such a thing. The man who stated that he would do it was bold and ambitious – for this reason, he had very few friends and was more or less isolated. A very punctual and articulated man would find it rather easy to go on such a journey but you all would be gladly surprised. This man faced many obstacles ranging from a typhoon to saving a woman from a sati, a Hindu sacrifice where a woman is burnt after the death of her husband. I found this play quite fascinating and had an overall thoughtful message. Though it was funny, it taught me something, and allowed me to also reflect on my travel experiences and how it shaped me as a person.

Travelling is one of those things that is never a waste of time or energy. You are always learning something new with every place you go. There is always the culture to experience, the language to learn, the food to eat, the sites to see, and so on. There is so much you can learn from different people and different places that you can never have nothing to do. There is too much to be done; it’s impossible for one to just sit around and sunbathe on the beach during a vacation.

As for me, I have always taken this idea to heart, and have tried to experience everything local in the countries that I have visited in the years. I have always tried to act like a local and experience everything with someone from around the place. After all, people who live in an area are the best tour guides.

I’ve studied in an international school all my life. My teachers have always taught us that learning about different cultures is a good thing and that you can only learn from meeting people from different places. I never understood that until I got to middle school. 6^th grade is a time where many new students arrive at Woodstock. It’s the beginning of a new school system – one moves from elementary school to middle school – and people want to start fresh rather than join in the middle of something that is already going on. I met a lot of people from different places that year. Though it is true that the school was mostly still filled with Indians and Koreans, people from different parts of India started coming. I got to know a lot about my country with the people I made friends with. Though I am an Indian by heart, I was born in the United States, and only arrived to India when I was six years old. I didn’t know much about India then, except that it was dirty and smelly, and not as nice as America. Clearly, my views have changed since then.

I came to acquire a lot of knowledge about Asia and other parts of the world, not only by education, but also by the school I attended, the friends I made, and the places I travelled. I have travelled so much that I have lost complete interest in the journey unlike the way I used to feel when I was younger, but I still haven’t lost the interest about learning of new cultures. I think that my travel experiences have somehow helped me adapt to the idea of an international boarding school. I was able to make friends easily with all types of people as I was always keen in learning about new things and had a deep respect for all cultures. I think my easiness to adapt to new things was because I travelled a lot, and for this, I am grateful – this made my time at Woodstock so much easier.


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