Traveling changes people. When you’re in a foreign country or another city, you become a different person, with an entirely different aura.
When you’re at home, you live a life of routine: wake up, go to school or work, come home, sleep, repeat. You rarely take risky opportunities and instead rely on rational decision making instead of impulse.
Though these are aspects of your at-home persona, you know there is also a part of you that disregards safety and systematic decisions and focuses on being carefree and fearless. This is the travel version of you.
The travel version of you is idealist and a stark contrast to your at-home persona. You become someone who seizes every opportunity and captures every mesmerizing moment. You become this adventurous soul who is always searching for new ways to enhance your physical, emotional and spiritual senses.
It’s a version of you whom everyone loves, but most importantly, it’s a version you love. There’s just something about being in a foreign city that strips away your layers of insecurity and leaves you exposed, which allows you to feel and embrace every raw cultural impact. It’s a version of you that allows your best aspects to really shine.
Here are the five reasons the best version of you comes out across the pond:
You’re more of a risk taker
Your fear threshold becomes non-existent when you travel. Safety feelings are traded for adrenaline feelings. Your only cravings are to stimulate your body and inspire your mind.
The travel version of you is more likely to do midnight skinny-dipping on the beaches of Phuket, dance until the sun rises in a Prague nightclub or paraglide through the Austrian mountainside. These activities surpass any “risky” activity you do back home, which is probably limited to changing your coffee order.
These impulsive actions let you experience every opportunity to its fullest. You’re the most fun when you think with your gut and not with your head.
You’re open to new relationships
For some, you get to a point in your life where you’ve made and established enough relationships to satisfy you.
However, your travel persona thrives on meeting and making new friends. It is one of the only opportunities you have in life when your path can cross with people from different countries and backgrounds.
When you meet and travel with these new friends, there are no preconceived judgments about each other — only that shared desire to travel.
The friends you make when you’re traveling can become some of the most cherished friendships you’ll ever have. They are the friends who will see you at your best and at your worst, and still love you.
They are the ones who do shots with you at Berlin nightclubs, walk you home after a night out in Miami and playing fire limbo on the beaches of Cambodia.
Though they may start off as strangers, sharing those unique and crazy experiences can turn these travel companions into life-long friends. You can thank travel you for that.
You’re less likely to care what others think
We’re always so concerned about our image and about what people think of it. Now, with social media, there is an extra layer of expectation to always impress. However, travel you does not give a f*ck about what others think. All you care about is making sure the decisions you make are the right decisions for you. Your journey, your rules.
The travel version of you doesn’t care that you’re wearing the same shirt twice in a row or that you’re a bad dancer.
Most importantly, travel you doesn’t care about what others say at home because they're doing nothing while you’re soaking up the sun in Greece. The only thoughts and opinions the travel version of you cares about are your own.
You’re more relaxed
When you’re traveling, things don’t go to plan. Sometimes, you run late for your flight; sometimes, you misplace important things, like your favorite t-shirt or passport. Sometimes, you wake up in stranger’s bed in a foreign college dormitory room, but that's just the joy of adventure.
The home version of you would panic and dwell on the future consequences. However, the travel version of you just rolls with the punches.
You’re less likely to complain about the small things because you know that nothing is ever perfect. Even when you run into some major drama, you just take it in stride and learn from your mistakes. Plus, your best stories are always the ones that never go according to plan.
You become your true self
Traveling allows you to become who you are meant to be. You’re not constrained by the expectations and pressures of society. It’s the only time when you'll ever feel the most freedom.
Everything looks sharper, vibrant and a sense of clarity runs through you. You carry yourself with this confident aura that lets the world know you can take on anything. This is the person that you want to be — no — this is the person you should be.
Sometimes, funds run out or life finally catches up to us. We have to hang up our travel shoes and go back to the daily grind we call life. But, this shouldn’t stop us from being the best version of ourselves.
If you’ve traveled, you’ve lived. Though you may not be lounging on the beaches of Cancún anymore, you can take those lessons, memories and experiences and bring them into your current life.
No matter where you are in the world, always be the best version you can be.
