This may come as a surprise after sitting in school for a significant portion of your life, but you can’t learn everything in a classroom. Traveling is not only good for the soul, its good for the mind. Learning about the world and what it has to offer helps you grow by immersing yourself into cultures that you never knew before.

1. Traveling is first-hand experience of what the world is like. So many people say they know what the world is like without having ever gone anywhere. Sitting through a world cultures class or reading a book about Morocco and then claiming you know what it’s like is like saying you know what a chicken nugget tastes like because someone described it to you once.
2. You learn about history, language, food, culture, and politics completely unlike anything you have ever known. This lets you form your own opinions about what you think the world should be like. For example, Europe doesn’t have ranch dressing (I know...I know.) However, many Europeans are encouraged to take a year or two off after high school to travel, work, or do whatever they think they need to do to help them figure out what they want to do for the rest of their lives. Imagine going into college actually having an idea of what you are interested in and want to study, and then proceeding to actually study it instead of changing your major 6 times. Crazy right?
3. Traveling introduces people who have a completely different perspective of life. Almost every aspect of their lives to this point has been different than what you know to be the typical lifestyle. Germans don’t leave the water running in the shower the entire time they’re in there. Some Chinese schools are in session six days a week. Some Australians consider kangaroos to be pests or a hassle, similar to deer in the United States. Europeans eat deli meat, cheese, and vegetables for breakfast. Seem weird to you? American standards like standing under the shower for 20 minutes doing absolutely nothing, five-day school weeks, swerving to avoid deer on the road, and all you can eat IHOP pancakes seem weird to people living outside the United States. Traveling helps you form appreciation for differences, uniqueness, and diversity in the world. You not only learn to appreciate the culture and ways of other countries, but you also learn to not take what your home has for granted.

How do you know if you like the way you live, speak, eat, etc… if it’s all you’ve ever experienced or known? Traveling gives you insight into what other people consider to be “normal” and (as you learn at the wrong time that public bathrooms aren’t a thing in Europe) forces you to realize that what you’ve always known in the U.S. isn’t necessarily “normal” either.