Travel

Please excuse me while I go on a little rant.

Mark Twain said, Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.

I don't believe I have ever heard a quote as true as this. Yet, living in Cedar City, I run into tons of people who have grown up here and never want to leave.

I know a girl who has been to North Carolina to visit her Uncle, once. That's it. Other than that, she has stayed in Utah her whole life. And she has no desire to change that. When I asked why she doesn't travel more she said, "Well I don't have family other places so there is no reason to." I thought to myself, "Yeah, I don't have family in Hawaii, Oregon, Washington D.C., Mexico, New York, Florida, Canada, or Peru, yet I went to all of those places."

I just feel like so many people here are closed-minded, oblivious to what is really going on in the world, and they have to follow the status quo. They are all in a hurry to spend the rest of their lives in the same town they grew up in. They fit the mold of stereotypes and are scared to death of anything new or unfamiliar.

I have nothing against conservative people, I am one. I have nothing against people who want to have kids at a young age, I probably will. I have nothing against people who get homesick and feel that it is most important to be by family, I think family is extremely important. And I definitely understand that some people simply don't have the means to travel as they'd like. I just don't understand the mentality of knowing that there is a whole world out there full of opportunities but choosing to be ignorant and uneducated about them.

Since I was young, I have always had a burning desire to travel the world. I have always wanted to experience other cultures, eat new foods, learn new languages, and mostly just marvel at the beauty and variety that this world has to offer.

I want to do yoga with a real yogi in India. I want to eat sushi in Japan. I want to make pastries in France. I want to learn to make pizza from a full-blooded Italian in Italy.

For me, travel isn't just about seeing all the tourist sights. Its about really being immersed in another culture. I want to live the way the natives do. 

I just get so annoyed of all the people in this small town that think that our culture is superior or something. UGH! There is so much to be learned from these other people and cultures and what a shame it would be to see it go to waste because no one is willing to learn.

That is the end of my rant. Thanks for listening.