Pico Iyer, quite simply my new inspiration.

          Pico Iyer's views on travel are inspiring and refreshing. He humbly, yet sophisticatedly breaks down the complex idea of travel and reduces it to terms everyone can relate to. His writing style even represents his generalistic standpoint on travel, Pico believes everyone perceives the places they travel to differently, and he allows his writing to be digested the same way -- "Why we travel" was a journey through my mind on how I perceive travel. He allows this reading to be perceived by everyone differently, and this is travel through my eyes.

          My reasons for traveling align very closely with Pico, I may not be able to word it as seamlessly and beautifully as he does, but this is about accepting differences. I presume we travel....to believe. We, as humans are highly interactive and complex, and each of us has a desire for something more. We all want to know what our place in this world is, or simply what makes up the world, what is out there? It's a big world, but it's growing smaller and smaller with technology. However, that doesn't stop anyone from traveling. But, back to my point. I agree with Pico that "traveling is a way to reverse time, to a small extent, and make a day last a year...and traveling is an easy way of surrounding ourselves, as in childhood, with what we cannot understand." We have all wanted to go back in time, relive a moment, change past actions, take back words, be young again. With travel, it allows that childhood belief,  complete trust and oblivion to live again. Travel is believing. What a person chooses to believe is up to the individual, but traveling in belief of something is immersing yourself in something completely new...with your eyes closed. And by allowing your eyes to be closed, you allow your mind to be open. You allow your mind to be free of prejudice and judgement. Travel is unbias. Travel is opportunity. Travel is freedom. Travel is endless. To travel is to believe.

 

         Iyer says "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new places, but in seeing with new eyes"
It's a widely used phrase, it's so simple, yet it means so much. To me, to see with new eyes, is really like what I mentioned earlier, to "see" with your eyes closed. Release previous ready-judgement and allow yourself to really see. To see with new eyes is not to look at things from your point of view, or any view in general. But to actually just observe. Take in every detail, every little detail, because you cannot see the whole picture unless you see everything that it is composed of. And once you have observed, you make importance of what's in front of you, around you, decide what it means to you, attach meaning to it, and that is when you truly see. And I can guarantee, you'll never see it the exact same way ever again. I can relate this to movies, let's use Inception for example, the first time, I was really trying to understand it all, I was trying to observe every detail, to make sense of what was happening. It was not until the second time that I watched the movie, did I realize that I was looking for all the wrong details. And that was my mistake, looking for the details, I had set myself up, unintentionally for certain parts of the picture, focusing on the parts I  thought were important, when really all of them were. The picture below can be a visual example of seeing with new eyes. It's a mixture of colors, maybe your eyes will automatically drift to your favorite color. If you're seeing it with new eyes, you'd look at all the colors, because they are all beautiful and equally as important.

Iyer also makes a point by saying "What gives value to travel is fear." Fear is something we obviously don't like to feel, fear is such a powerful, driving force, but fear is actually not all bad. Fear can lead us to do things we wouldn't normally do (I say this in a good sense), fear can be the push from behind that at times we all need. As Rosalia de Castro once said, "I see my path, but I don't know where it leads. Not knowing where I'm going is what inspired me to travel it." People normally have a fear of the unknown, of instability, of lack of structure or routine. But in order to get the benefits fear can offer, you must dive right into the center of it. We have a natural curiosity for the unknown, but it is often hindered by the presence of fear. On this trip, we will leave our fears behind and travel through the days, not to be held back by our previous restraints, because the  "only thing to fear is fear itself." It is better to be free to experience what you will.

And as for Iyer relating travelers to "human carrier pigeons", transporting ideas and culture from one society to another, I completely agree. As travelers we have all this freedom and excitement, but we also have a very important responsibility. To share what we have seen and experienced to anyone who has the ears to listen. Like Iyer mentioned, in some impoverished places in the world "we are the eyes and ears of the people we meet, the only contact with the world outside..." It is our job to share our knowledge with others, spread culture, and allow them to also see the world holistically. To allow them to believe. Because for those haven't and never will travel, their belief is the only thing they have as evidence of the outside world.

 "And if travel is like love, it is, in the end, mostly because it's a heightened state of awareness, in which we are mindful, receptive, undimmed by the familiarity and ready to be transformed. That is why the best trips, like the best love affairs, never really end." 

I chose this as my favorite quote because to me personally, it really does describe the effect traveling has on body and soul. We travel to renew, refresh, awaken parts of us that have long been asleep. I can especially relate, remembering when I went to Italy, visiting family in the mountains in Tuscany, and I was in a mood I had never experienced before, a sense of complete serenity and homeliness, and up until then, it had been dormant. Traveling awakens you. And it does make us aware and alert, every time you travel, something about your journey with stick with you - forever, and soon it surrounds and includes itself in your everyday life, much like love, a love that that is neverending. Travel is unbias. Travel is opportunity. Travel is freedom. Travel is endless.

Hello, nice to meet you.

I guess telling you my name would be a good place to start off the beginning of....simply, the greatest adventure of my life. My name is Amanda, I'm a sophomore at Grayslake North, nice to meet you. Okay, that wasn't so hard, let me tell you a bit about myself. Traveling in itself isn't a new adventure to me, growing up in a military family, relocating happens often, starting very young. And I wouldn't have it any other way, traveling has made me culturally ambiguous, very open-minded and accepting. In my spare time, I practically eat, sleep, breath Theatre. That's my number one passion besides traveling. I like to write, horse back ride, love animals/environment and I'm always listening to music. And this summer I'm traveling across the world.

        The reason I signed up for this course is because it's something I've never done before, and something I will never be able to do again. Yes, I plan to visit Australia and New Zealand again sometime in the future, but it won' be the same as this particular trip. When, in high school, am I going to be able to go across the world with with school peers and experience something totally new and foreign like this? Never, so I knew I had to sign up. Plus, look at the picture above, who wouldn't want to see something that beautiful?
         What I hope to learn from an opportunity like this is to strengthen my ability to see "the big picture" We played a game in class yesterday that challenged us to not look at what the teacher wanted you to see, it's a distraction, the goal is to imitate the actions before and after the initial distraction. Well, let's say I got distracted...so that inspired me to make sure that when I arrive in New Zealand and Australia, to look and appreciate everything, even the little things. Because the little things add up to something bigger.

        The thing that specifically interests me about Australia and New Zealand is its natural beauty. It's not just the outside beauty, I think the Aboriginal culture is very precious and humble, and I admire its ability to strive despite the very rough obstacles the Aboriginal culture had to defeat in the past. I also admire the way New Zealand is so in-tune with their environment, everywhere you look, it seems the earth is radiating with beauty, the grass really is greener on the other side. I love its diverse environment, the geysers, mud pools, mountains, hills, oceans, the exotic animals and the fact that there are parts untouched and unharmed by humans. It's pure. I also find it interesting that New Zealand is practically overflowing with sheep :)
      
        To conclude, I believe learning about where you're going before you go is important because oftentimes people will just pack up and travel somewhere new to them. They'll either have a great time because by chance everything just works out in their favor or they'll be quite miserable and return home wishing they'd done some planning. I think it'd be very overwhelming to be in a foreign place with so much to offer...but not have a clue about any of the great things you can experience. I believe, if you go somewhere and know everything there is to offer, and know about the traditions, and customs you'll connect much more personally to the trip if you'd done the opposite because you immerse yourself into their lifestyle. In addition, if you don't learn about the social norms of another country, what behavior is accepted and what's not, you could find yourself extremely embarrassed or worse... in big trouble.