Travel can and will teach you more about life and everything else than any college degree. You often hear successful people say “go travel and learn”. And they are correct!

You see, traveling isn’t a two-week vacation at a fancy hotel on a tropical island. Hell no. It’s something much deeper, more real, and sometimes hard as fuck.

The hardest part is making the decision and moving on. Once this is done, your real adventure begins.

I traveled and worked full time for just under three years, and during this time I ran into many different situations and problems that I somehow overcame. Did the end work? I became a better version of myself and started to see the world in a totally different way.

So why should I travel?

Below are my top ten reasons as to why everyone should stop making excuses and start traveling ASAP.

1. Learn to deal with stressful situations

When you travel for an extended period of time, you will eventually find yourself in a stressful situation or two. This can be arriving at the wrong place where you feel unsafe or unwanted or having a flight or train trip delayed or cancelled.

You quickly learn how to overcome these things, and the next time things go wrong at an airport or train station you will react more calmly.

2. It’s so much fun!

Obviously! Yes, traveling isn’t all sunshine and rainbows 24/7, but it’s really fun most of the time.

The places you see, the people you meet, and the cultures you experience all add to this. It is something that every person has the ability to enjoy, no matter what personality type they are.

3. You have the opportunity to learn and experience new cultures

It’s easy to get caught up in your own life and in the society you’ve become used to. Traveling forces you to get out of your own way and experience what others actually do and see.

You will quickly realize that a completely different world exists with people of all faiths and values. It really opens up and broadens your views on so many things in life in such a positive way.

So easily we tend to believe that our small society that we have grown up in is doing things the right way and anything other than that is wrong. FAKE. Get out there and see for yourself how other cultures and beliefs can be just as good, if not better.

4. Know yourself

be alone and spend time with yourself Seems like a weird thing to do, right? The fact is that we all need to do this more often.

The thing about travel is that you will also have a lot of downtime. It’s time for you to be with yourself and no one else! You get to know yourself a little better, and most of the time you are surprised with what you are really capable of.

5. Learn to stretch a budget

This is so true! Traveling helps you be smart with cash and learn how to stretch a budget to the max. I can remember so many times when I just skipped meals because I needed some extra money for an upcoming activity, etc.

The beauty of traveling is that you usually don’t have a time budget. Therefore, instead of always taking the fastest and most expensive means of transport, you can often opt for the slow and cheap bus which usually takes much longer. These end up being a lot more fun and you’ll likely end up meeting some amazing people!

6. Build great self-confidence

Whether you are a shy and lacking in confidence human being or not, you will definitely come away from extensive travel experiences with a great deal of self-confidence.

I think this boils down to constantly being in new and strange situations while having to meet and interact with lots of people you don’t know. It doesn’t happen overnight, but after a few months you’ll start to feel more comfortable around strangers and won’t even think twice about stopping someone in public to ask a question or direction.

7. Know a few phrases in a variety of languages

I know this isn’t life changing at all, but it’s definitely fun! After spending a few months in any country, you will surely have made some local friends.

Through them, one can easily learn some useful phrases and terms to use while in their country. After a year of travel, you will have easily accumulated half a dozen basic languages. It’s fun to know and just adds a little more to the mental gain of traveling. Also, if you ever meet someone from a country you’ve been to, you can try to impress them with your few words in their language!

8. Make amazing friends and strangers

The friends I have made on my travels are relationships that will definitely last a lifetime. Yet these boys and girls are so different and strange compared to the people I grew up with.

If I had never decided to hit the road, I would never have known that such characters exist. It’s funny, though, how you immediately gravitate towards these so-called “weird” humans. Two weeks with someone you met while traveling can equal more than a decade of your friendships made during your normal life back home. And believe me, you always miss these companions more. Sad but true!

9. Escape

Escaping doesn’t have to mean you’re living a shitty life or something. It simply means escaping from your routine.

Everyone gets into a rut. Especially when you start working. Routine is the enemy of time. Combine this with what is known as being “stuck” in your daily routine life, and that is what we all need to escape from sometimes. And you will feel free, believe me.

It’s not to say that you never have to return to this former life, but escaping on your travels will give you some much-needed perspective. Thereafter, it is your decision whether to return or not.

10. Change your thoughts about life

It’s so easy to complain about so much bullshit in our lives on a daily basis.

If, like me, you come from the western parts of society, you will be surrounded by a lot of greed. We get sucked into this belief that money and things are the most important thing, when in reality they are not always.

When you come across people who have “nothing” by our standards but seem completely happy, you begin to question your own definition of happiness. You soon realize that more is not always better.

Listen, traveling affects everyone differently. You can come home after a six month trip and say “thank God it’s done” and go back to your normal life. But for those of you who are deeply affected by it, enjoy and embrace it!