…with a little diversity. Diversity is defined by Google as “the state of being diverse; variety.” This definition can be used if you are talking about taking a walk everyday after work, but one day you feel like being “diverse” and you take a bike ride instead. This is not the “diversity” that I am talking about. My humble opinion the definition on Google for “Diversity” is too broad. I prefer this definition; Individual differences (e.g., personality, learning styles, and life experiences) and group/social differences (e.g., race/ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, gender expression, country of origin, and ability as well as cultural, political, religions or other affiliations). (AAC&U)
Please, please, please read that definition again. Read it everyday. Memorize it. Eat those words for breakfast.
My hope for you is that you can get out of your shell. Your little home town. Your little perfect world. My hope is that you get out of your comfort zone and realize that the world has so much more to offer. So much more to give. I hope that you learn that there are other people that are different from you, and difference is okay. I hope that you learn from them. I hope that you learn about different religions, different ethnicity or racial groups, and different cultural traditions and beliefs. Take that above definition (the second one), and learn all you can about individual differences and group/social differences.
I promise you (and I don’t promise very often), that it will make you a better member of society. Meeting new people and experiencing new things always opens more windows and doors, than it does closing them. When you experience a new culture there is a rush of excitement. There is a thrill of learning something new about a society that you have never even thought about before. Maybe, just maybe, those experiences will change you. I know that they will change you for the better, but you have to be accepting of the differences that people offer you. Those differences are what makes the world a better place.
How boring would life be if everyone was just like you? Maybe you wake up, get ready to work an 8-5 shift, come home, make dinner and watch The Big Bang Theory before falling asleep. Then you wake up the next day just to do it all over again. You interact with the same people everyday and have the same experiences. You shop at the same stores and eat the same food. Day in and day out. Everyday is mundane and ordinary.
This is a huge reason with I get high when I travel. Not high as in smoking something or whatever other way of getting high there is, but an emotional high. The one you can only get when you separate your self from what you know. When you crawl out of the hole you live in and experience the world around you there is an intense high of emotions. You feel nervous because you are going into unknown territory. You feel excited because you are taking a vacation or trip that should change your outlook on life, even just a little. You feel a sense of peace, because once you get on that plane, or in your car, or whatever mode of transportation you are using, you start to realize that there are other places that are peaceful aside from your hole you live in.
There is so much more world to see then what is around you. Travel as much as you can. See as much as you are able to see. Talk to the locals. Join in the cultural traditions and events. Immerse yourself in diverse situations. Grow as a person. Become a better human being. Simple enough.
If you live in a hole, get out. There is so much more to the world then the mundane, ordinary dirt you surround yourself with.
Found Traveller
Picture: Taken by @Lost2FoundTraveller while in Cambodia. Picture is of a Cambodian Woman who makes and sells fair trade goods.
Lost2FoundTraveller 