Most people associate traveling with escaping to a nice exotic place: sleeping in, walking down a remote beach, and enjoying cocktails while watching a sunset.
That may be a part of traveling, but there is one quality of traveling that many people don't think about until they come home: the return.
I want to go into specific detail on two feelings you may feel after "coming home." Arrogance, and later, Discontent.
Travel always broadens the mind. That, I think, is unavoidable. The degree to which it broadens your mind, however, is actually the question. The issue is that once you return home, you may start realizing there are some things about "home" you don't like or downright hate.
You may realize that you suddenly perceive your fellow countrymen as well mannered, poor mannered, civilized, or uncivilized. You may think they are well dressed or poorly dressed compared to the rest of the world.
You may think you are wealthy and have more than you should. Or you may think that you deserve more.
The first time I came back from my first set of travels, the strongest part of my trip was... the absolute downright dislike of America/Americans I felt when I came home:
I thought Americans had god-awful manners. You mean you don't eat meals with a knife and fork?
I thought Americans dressed badly. Clothes that hardly fit their bodies, tshirts on all occasions, and no sense of style.
I thought Americans were naive and unworldly. Really? You don't know what country Prague is in?
I thought the American government and political systems were awful. Where most Europeans had incredible life benefits most Americans were far behind the curve.
And then it hit me.
I had encountered one of the worst bugs of traveling. Arrogance.
Arrogance can sometimes be extremely difficult to spot by yourself.
A very predictable phase most travelers go through first is feeling like they know the entire world. I thought that I knew more than my friends, but once I realized how ridiculous my assumptions were I felt awful.
Traveling can bring you to a more evolved state of mind. Or you can end up as a character that few people want to associate with.
Coming home from a long trip can evoke a variety of feelings: nostalgia, happiness, sadness, discontent, arrogance, and so on.
It always feels weird for me to come back to where I live. People around me are particularly concerned about whose lawn is greener, whose kid went to Harvard, and who got a new beamer.
Sometimes when you travel and come back to such clear materialism you just get exhausted from all of the monotony; you want pure life, you want passion, you want experiences that give you goose bumps again.
Sometimes life just doesn't cut it anymore and you need to escape to somewhere else.
Everyone's complaints just seem so trivial. You wonder how people can be so myopic to care about such unimportant things in life.
It's okay.
The phase will pass.
But for now, just remember that travel is well worth your time, and if it teaches you any lesson that will be humility. It will teach you lessons whether you like it or not. So you had better sit back and prepare for the ride.
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