Less Western, More Worldly
With each new country I visit, my entire perspective "morphs" toward something better. I feel more at home with friends and family than I do in a specific location we call "home".
When you grow up overseas in third world countries you go on adventures that others have difficulty relating to and people lack context for and often don’t want to hear about. Paradoxically, I never learned to recite the pledge of allegiance, but I did learn how to hail a cab before I could drive.
My sense of home is not a physical location, it is wherever I am surrounded by the people I love. My roots are people, not places. As a result of travel, I am more thankful, open and hopeful.
People are vibrant, beautiful, and crave community. The more we experience the more we realize there is hope and happiness all around us. Travel allows us to not only see the world but see perspectives.
WIth each new adventure, my heart and mind continue to be open to the world’s challenges. Traveling abroad doesn’t blind you to the world’s problems. It makes you more acutely aware of them. It’s made me more committed than ever to finding long-term solutions to deeper problems, whether it’s disaster relief, wealth inequality or climate change.
I believe you can thrive in any country and in any industry as long as your attitude and mindset are more worldly. Do stuff that is interesting rather than appeases others. Find out the real problem, understand it and figure out how solving it helps long-term societal problems.
Make your own way.