I lay in my bed at night with my eyes closed picturing places I have not yet been. I lay in my bed dreaming of future adventures, eccentric mouth watering food, and shopping in unfamiliar territories. I long for that rush of happiness and curiosity that creeps over me when I arrive at a new and exciting destination for the first time. Whether its abroad with a group of teenagers, through an educational institution, or with my loveable family, one of my favorite things to do is travel. My travels contribute to who I am today, affecting my every day discussions, outlook on life, and general global perspective. I have traveled in the past yet I will continue to travel to new and unseen places for pleasure, education, and to create memories that will last forever.
I travel to find pleasure. The smell of a brick-oven pizza topped bubbling fresh mozzarella cheese in a quaint restaurant in Italy makes me happy. Riding a camel in the desert followed by snorkeling in Eilat makes me feel accomplished. Getting waited on in a well-decorated bed and breakfast makes me feel special. Lying on warm sand while sipping a piña colada makes me feel relaxed. Therefore, I find different kinds of pleasure in a wide array of places, people, objects, and activities. I feel very fortunate that I have the ability to travel solely for pleasure purposes. As we learned in class, many people to not have the economic capabilities to travel for pleasure and some are forced to travel only for unwanted purposes like natural disasters, job relocation, or to escape various dangerous situations.
Education is a huge reason for why I choose to travel. For instance, I have traveled to learn more about my religion by visiting Israel. My time in Israel taught me the history of my people, many Hebrew words, and more about the Israeli-Palistinian conflict. Also, I travel to educate myself on other cultures and ways of living. Travel teaches me to appriciate other ways of dress, cooking, and speaking. There is a certain form of education that cannot be taught in a classroom or from reading a book. The only way to learn this certain form of education is to travel and experience how others live and think. Traveling taught me that education expands beyond math equations, proper grammar, and scientific experiments. I plan to travel abroad and study at a foreign university and acclimate myself into a country’s way of life, learning a long the entire way.
The worse part about travel is when it comes to an end. I may have that picture of my family posed at the Eiffel tower, a pair of fancy leather gloves from Italy, a bracelet placed on my hand at the Western Wall, and a bottle of fresh maple syrup from Canada to remind me of my past travels. However, physical objects only last so long before they are lost, thrown away, or of no use to me. The memories will become stories I can bring up when out with my friends, laugh at around the dinner table, write about in essays for class, and describe to future employers to show-off my broadened global perspective. It is the memoires that will last forever.
All in all, I will continue to travel for pleasure, education, and to create memories. This Border Crossings class taught me how to appreciate my personal travel experience and how to analyze the true meaning of crossing borders. The world is a huge, unknown, and mysterious place and my goal is to cross as many borders as I can, traveling to create memories of joy and knowledge that will last a lifetime.
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