When I was seven, my parents bought my sister and me an enormous map of the world. It was placed in our room right in front of my desk. It was their way to create a passion for geography, and I must say they succeeded. However, to be honest, the end result was the passion for traveling around the world.

My sister and I were virtually traveling around the world. We would close our eyes, point at the country and tell each other what we would see or do there. Pure imagination!

We traveled a lot domestically, around Ukraine. I find it fascinating; there is so much to see even in your home country. But when I turned fourteen, my dream partially came true. Obviously I did not travel around the world, but I was privileged enough to visit a few other countries. I must admit that each one of your trips, whether long one or short, will have a significant impact on you.

Do I encourage traveling? YES, I really do! A few years ago, I came across one quote that left a footprint in my heart, “Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer.” I cannot but agree.

When traveling, one is not only overcoming the space and the distance or gaining new knowledge and experience, but he or she slowly transforms as a person. You start viewing the world differently and appreciating small things that you have never thought of before. It feels as if you’ve “upgraded your eyes” and now you can see more around you.

Traveling makes you come out from your comfort zone because you are entering another world with its own set of rules, customs and traditions, which you might think are crazy at first. In one of my previous articles, I wrote about the stages of cultural shock, so this is a great way to measure how adaptable and brittle you are.

I personally gained a lot of ideas about what I want to do in a long run. I think different places and emerging circumstances develop flexibility and uniqueness of thoughts and ideas. And even the emotions and feeling you get from traveling is priceless. It is all about creating memories and enjoying every second of your life. Sometimes people forget that we do not own the time of the world, and it is important to do as many things as you can throughout your life.

Finally, we live in the period of globalization. It is crucial to travel and learn about new cultures. As 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.”