Publish at August 03 2023 Updated August 03 2023
Do you remember your first trips? Like most people, mine were in the family cocoon during the summer vacations and then with school in the nearest big city. As a child, I realized that the world is a lot bigger and different than what I knew at that age. Since then, I've traveled extensively, alone for months at a time, as a couple, as a family with the kids and for work, always with different effects.
When Montaigne and many others said that "Travel shapes youth", they weren't referring to pleasure trips or those taken with parents; rather, they were talking about the more adventurous, filled with the unexpected and encounters.
No doubt there are as many ways to travel as there are individuals, but certain conditions make for transformative journeys, those where you discover your abilities, where you change your outlook, where you "experience". Not necessarily 40 days in the desert, but enough to have mobilized your resources and dealt with the situations that arose.
The unexpected
Almost by definition, the unexpected leads us to transform ourselves. The unexpected is a relative notion, subject to a different dosage for each person. As long as we feel in control, the unexpected is generally welcome, warding off boredom and stimulating interest. Obviously, the more experience, skills and resources you have, the greater the dose of the unexpected you can cope with. But whatever the dose, you'll have something to learn from the unexpected.
A change of scenery
The loss of our usual points of reference leads us to reconnect with our essence, our true self, rather than with our habits that have become unusable in a foreign context. Everything we thought universal or general has to be re-evaluated and sometimes fundamentally called into question. Some journeys don't leave us unscathed.
Becoming a foreigner
As a foreigner, you have to rely on your own resources. You discover your resourcefulness, your powers of observation, your resistance to fatigue, your language skills, your ability to make contact with strangers, new interests and tastes you didn't know you had. We often bring more to our hosts than we take away, discovering our worth in the eyes of others, and our self-confidence soars. No one but ourselves can make our self-confidence grow; we give it to ourselves, and it's impossible to lie to ourselves about it.
Parents who have sent their teenager on an internship abroad often see a transformed adult return, more self-reliant, confident and self-assured.
Separation and disconnection
I've worked on a number of student exchanges, and around 2010 I observed a radical change in the behavior of certain students and the success of their exchange: those who "disconnected" from their country, friends and parents learned the language faster, made more friends and integrated much better than those glued to their phones almost every night. You could just as easily say that you need to be present, not only physically but also mentally.
The position of the voyeur who takes photographs of everything is not that of the person who experiences it. The person who returns transformed has had more encounters and experiences than he or she has photographed.
Reconnection and discovery
Well disconnected, which is normally the case when we travel, we are then available for new contacts and discoveries. "Out of sight, out of mind" applies equally to parents and loved ones. Travel can be a real therapy, removing us from an oppressive context, be it family or professional, and leading us to wonderful encounters and enriching moments, both for ourselves and for others.
I don't want to go back to where I came from
I attended a conference where a traveler in a southern country was confronted with an exceptional human situation. He had the choice of returning to his comfortable, well-paid and almost anonymous job, or staying in this country where his skills would make a huge difference, where he would be appreciated as a human being in a way he would never be elsewhere, and where he would live in minimal material conditions. For his self-esteem, he chose to stay. He has no regrets.
Without being so extreme, many situations invite us to leave an unsatisfactory life. Travel offers both the risk and the opportunity to realize this.
Many people have first visited a country before settling there. There comes a time when the decision is made, "we'll live here". The transformation is profound.
I haven't returned
I've also seen the opposite phenomenon, knowing better and having to return to adverse conditions not because we like them, but because our self-esteem and commitments demand it. We now know that better exists and we have every intention of creating it. You're back home, but you're not quite back home.
A friend who went on a collaborative trip to a southern country told me that at the farewell community meal, where chicken - the only meat he had seen all trip - was served, one of the villagers asked him why none of the white people had eaten the chicken bones. The plates of all the guests were empty, except for those of the four white collaborators... Since then, he has crunched and eaten all the little chicken bones, full of cartilage, marrow and calcium; no more need for calcium supplements and shark fins. He still hasn't recovered.
On my travels, in awe of each different dawn, I wondered why I didn't experience this sense of fulfillment on a daily basis back home. I had the look of a traveler discovering something new all the time. Since then, I've been cultivating this "traveler's eye", and even though I've been looking at the same cityscape for years, I observe it as if for the first time and rediscover it all the time. I've never quite returned.
We're back
How many people have become more tolerant, open, collaborative and outgoing as a result of a trip? We become aware of our differences, our strengths, the opportunities we have that don't necessarily exist elsewhere. We come back transformed, but only if we've encountered the other, the difference, the unknown, the unexpected and, ultimately, ourselves.
Happy travels!
Image by Foundry Co - Pixabay
References
Travel is for young people - Proverbs
http://les-proverbes.fr/site/proverbes/les-voyages-forment-la-jeunesse
Why does travel shape youth? - David Nathan - Noovo
https://www.noovomoi.ca/voyager/conseils-voyage/article.pourquoi-les-voyages-forment-la-jeunesse.1.3627222.html
Does travel really shape youth? Thibault de St Maurice - RadioFrance
https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceinter/podcasts/philosophie/philosophie-du-vendredi-02-septembre-2022-1074982
The benefits of travel - Andrés - Liligo
https://www.liligo.fr/magazine-voyage/les-bienfaits-du-voyage-163538.html
Erasmus - https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/fr
Don't travel
Exclusive poll: Why do three quarters of 18-30 year olds dream of going abroad? - 20 minutes
https://www.20minutes.fr/societe/2344803-20181001-sondage-exclusif-pourquoi-trois-quarts-18-30-ans-revent-partir-etranger
Those who have never been away cite professional or family constraints (55%) as preventing them from going, followed by financial constraints (54%).
"There are determinants to international mobility. For the time being, it remains the prerogative of the most highly educated and young people from the most privileged backgrounds",
"Mobility abroad is favored by the fact of having had other mobility experiences before: having moved as a child, having changed university, having traveled a lot with one's parents".
The Case Against Travel - NewYorker - Agnes Callard
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/the-case-against-travel
Traveler's syndrome - Wikipedia -
"Since reality doesn't live up to their fantasies, they become frustrated and take refuge in delusion"
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syndrome_du_voyageur
The time I explained why I don't travel - Miz Literature
https://mizlitterature.wordpress.com/2019/06/30/pourquoi-je-ne-voyage-pas/
What if I don't like to travel? - Fil santé jeunes
https://www.filsantejeunes.com/et-si-jaime-pas-voyager-21283
Disadvantages of traveling: 12 disadvantages of traveling and how to tame them - Instinct voyageur
https://www.instinct-voyageur.fr/inconvenients-voyage/
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