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How Does Travel Change the Way You See Yourself and the World?
Jun 19, 2025
Travel isn’t just about visiting new places—it’s about stepping into someone else’s world, even for a moment. It challenges your assumptions, shifts your perspective, and leaves you changed in ways you might not expect. Anita shares how a trip to China during her college years profoundly shaped her outlook and personal growth. Click here (https://abusonadustyroad.com/the-power-of-travel-how-seeing-the-world-changes-who-you-are/) to read more about The Power of Travel: How Seeing the World Changes Who You Are. (https://abusonadustyroad.com/the-power-of-travel-how-seeing-the-world-changes-who-you-are/) #DustyRoadsPodcast #PowerOfTravel #TravelChangesYou #SeeTheWorldDifferently #PersonalGrowthThroughTravel #TravelAndPerspective #LifeLessonsFromTravel #TravelStoriesWithAnita Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/globaltradegal)
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[Music]
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hi this is Anita from the Dusty Roads
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podcast today I want to talk a little
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bit about how travel or seeing the world
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can really change you and change who you
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are you know when I was in college I
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took a trip through China and I'd have
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to say that that trip was a pivotal
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moment in my life and it changed me on
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many levels you know I didn't go for
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luxury or comfort i was very much down
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in with the trenches i boarded trains
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that rattled through endless countryides
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buses that bumped along dirt roads i
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rode in the back of trucks i you know
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met random people along the way and I
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just really had a great experience
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traveling and seeing the countryside of
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China like I'd never seen it before i
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saw it very much up close and personal
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you know one of the things that I used
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to really love to do is you know
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sometimes I'd go to like a monument or
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some other place and I'd see the
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monument and it was great and then I
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just kind of sit and I'd people watch
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and kind of get to know some people and
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meet some new friends along the way i
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just love doing that i love talking to
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the people that I was there with and
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getting to know them and getting to know
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something about their lives and their
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experiences you know that trip changed
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my world view it deepened my empathy and
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gave me a new lens to understand not
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just China but the people in China in
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general and that's the real power of
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travel you know that travel is not just
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about the postcard moments or the
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Instagram moments and this is something
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that really is one of my beefs that
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bothers me a lot when people just travel
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and all they want to do is let's take a
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selfie we've been here and they take a
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selfie and they post it so everyone can
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say "Oh isn't that so wonderful you
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travel?" But they don't really really
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immerse themselves in the travel and the
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experience themselves it becomes all
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about taking that picture getting that
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selfie next to that monument and then
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saying "Look at me i've been there."
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That's not really what travel's about
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travel should be something that changes
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you that makes you a different person
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you know it's not the postcard moments
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it's the unexpected counter encounters
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that quietly rearrange how you think
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feel and you see the world travel should
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build empathy there's a growing body of
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research that shows that immersive
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travel increases empathy a 2017 study
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from the Journal of Personality and
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Social Psychology found that people who
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spend extended time abroad scored higher
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in perceptive taking and emotional
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understanding measures so in other words
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if you're abroad or you've been spending
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time abroad or away from your own
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culture this is going to help your own
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sense of perspective and emotional but
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when you live among people whose lives
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look very different than your own it
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becomes harder to dehumanize them you
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know you start to see the nuances you
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you you stop lumping people into us and
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them you begin to see that there's a
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whole other world out there my
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experience in China taught me that there
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was no textbook you know ever could i
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remember riding a pack train where I sat
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across from an older man who wore a mau
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jacket and had hands you know worn from
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decades of work we shared sunflower
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seeds and some watermelon and he told me
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about his children you know the land
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reforms and how it was affecting him and
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his family the changing times it wasn't
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a political debate it was a human
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exchange it was two people talking and
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exchanging our humanity you know I saw
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him as not as a representative of the of
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of China but I I saw him as a father a
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worker a human being with hopes and
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frustrations just like mine you know
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that's sort of like that stays with you
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when you when you meet people on a very
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personal level and you get to know about
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them and their lives you begin to
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realize that in many ways we have much
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more in common than what we might think
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we have that we are very much human
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beings that may have things more in
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common than we have our own differences
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travel can also help you spark
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creativity you know travel doesn't make
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you more empathetic but travel can also
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make you more creative according to
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research that was published is people
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who live abroad not just visit but
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people actually live abroad tend to
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develop more excellent creative problem
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solving skills and I believe too that
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they begin to also understand other
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people this last weekend I was taking a
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yoga class my teacher's from Holland her
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husband's from Israel and after the
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class there was a um we went out to eat
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you know have um it was customary went
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out to a local coffee shop and you know
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there was somebody that was there from
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Australia and a guy that was there from
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the Ukraine and it was you know
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interesting we could all talk and had
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something in common something to talk
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about we all understood each other on on
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a on a very very sort of different level
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it wasn't like them and me it was us we
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were one and I think that's really like
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when you travel when you you know you
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live abroad and you know you don't just
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like live abroad for a short period of
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time an extended period of time you
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begin to see the world in a very
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different view kind of like what I've
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talked here in my podcast a lot about
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you begin to really live your life as a
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global citizen
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you know and part of the reason is
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because when you adapt to a new culture
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it pushes your brain to think
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differently you're constantly decoding
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unfamiliar cues adjusting your behavior
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and finding new communication methods in
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China when I traveled China so many
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years ago I had to figure out things
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with you know with my limited language
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skills and you know limited guide book
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for world regions i had to learn to read
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read the room pay attention to
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non-verbal signals and adjust quickly i
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had to learn to be able to do all of
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that to be able to see things and
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understand things in order to survive
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that's the kind of cognitive flexibility
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that sticks with you you know it's
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helped me in my work today in the work
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that I do it's helped me in
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relationships has helped me you with
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life's unpredictable terms um turns and
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twists that you have travel can also
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reconnect you with a purpose you know
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one of the most surprising benefits of
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immersive travel is how you can
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reconnect you with a sense of purpose
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when you're you know you're taken out of
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your daily routine and you've exposed
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the vastly different ways of living you
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you question your assumption about what
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matters you re-evaluate your goals and
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ask more significant questions traveling
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through China in such a formative age
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you know did precisely that for me i saw
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people making do with little communities
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pulling together and a rhythm of life
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that proprietized you know family and
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endurance over consumerism i saw a
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different part of China i saw how
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important the family was to many of the
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Chinese how important community was to
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them you know it forced me to you know
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ask myself what kind of life do I want
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what do I value what's important to me
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what's important to my life you know my
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story is just one among many stories
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about people who've um traveled you hear
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similar stories of transformational you
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hear similar stories of how travel has
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you know changed people there's all
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different ways that travel can change
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you and change your perspective and
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essentially change who you are you know
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travel can also bring with it a lot of
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discomfort there can be times where it's
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frustrating where it's hard where you
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just cry out and it it can be lonely it
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can be it can be difficult you can miss
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out on things that are going on at home
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you know there can be many types of diff
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discomforts that can make you off
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balance but travel can help you to be
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able to you know understand
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i believe that those those discomforts
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are far outweighed by the benefits that
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you gain i remember getting lost cycling
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in a small city in Guailing China and
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unsure how to ask for directions a local
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family saw me they invited me in for
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lunch and tea you know we couldn't speak
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the same language fluently but they
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offered warmth and hospitality they gave
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me what little they had and they fed me
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some rice and some a little bit of
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vegetables from their garden you know
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discomfort isn't the enemy it's a
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teacher it's it's about teaches you
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humility it teaches you to listen more
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judge less and adapt constantly when I
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thought of that little family and their
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little hut that they had there at the
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time and I thought about them working
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off of the land it really really made me
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see what they valued they they loved
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their children they loved each other
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they loved their home you know and and
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they really were very kind and generous
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people maybe more kind and generous than
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I am um sometimes in my own life so one
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thing you can do when we talk about
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living life as a global citizen is you
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can believe be a lifelong believer in
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the transformation of travel believe
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that travel can change you and can make
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you a different person that travel can
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help to change your life in positive and
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great ways if you let it travel can and
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will challenge you but it will also
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teach you and it will change you and you
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will not be the same person after you've
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traveled
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we hope that you will read our blog that
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we have on this which is entitled power
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of travel how seeing the world changes
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who you are and that you will you know
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that you'll read it and that it'll give
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you some ideas as to why travel
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continues to be such an important part
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of I believe anyone's life if you have
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the opportunity take it go out and
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travel explore and see the world but
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remember don't just be a tourist be
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someone who travels with a purpose and
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with with cultural literacy in place if
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you want to understand cultural lit
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literacy we have done a podcast also on
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that we can put a link to that podcast
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also in the description where you can be
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able to learn what it means to travel
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with cultural literacy in mind thank you
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so much for listening we certainly do
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appreciate you and we hope that you'll
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join with us and living your life as a
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global citizen being part of this great
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beautiful global world that we're part
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of thank you and we look forward to
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having you join with us and subscribe to
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our community
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[Music]
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