Pico Iyer



1. I do think that Iyer's reasons are very accurate because I believe why all people travel is to gain knowledge. To step outside their boundaries and find new experiences outside of their comfort zones. You have to be an adventurous person in the first place to even TRY to put yourself out their because it's all about vulnerability and how you react to it. I like to travel just because I like to see and be in new places just because I generally like change, and traveling around the world is defiantly a change.



Pico Iyer



2. It means that just going to a country and seeing all of its sights isn't enough, you have to put yourself in the shoes of someone who lives there and see what they see. To truly learn about the country you have to put forth the effort of reaching out to natives and experiencing their daily lives. Only then can you really have an opinion on the country that you visited and what you did there. You have to be open to new things and new ideas just to allow yourself to form a different opinion.

3. The fear of stepping onto that plane and knowing that you could turn back and cancel all your plans but that you want to go out and see the world, is very great. It's hard for everyone to drop all insecurities and just go with the flow of your travels in new places. I think our main fear (for the students on this trip) is that our parents won't be there to shield us. They're like a safety blanket and we're having a whole chunk of a life changing experience without them and that is very scary!

4. I feel more like bringing back ideas is more important than spreading ideas somewhere else. It isn't really your duty to try and force your ideas on other cultures unless you really believe that your idea could in some way help them. But I do think that bringing things back from your trip to share with others who didn't get to experience it is very important. You want them to know what you did, what you saw, and mostly what beliefs you picked up along the way.

 "We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves."

5. I like this quote because it ties in all that I have been trying to say. It is the beginning sentence of the article and kicks off to the rest of what he's saying but I think it's still one of the most interesting sentences. We travel because when we are in another country we can be whoever we want and really let our souls come alive. And still in that whole process we are absorbing and taking in the culture of another place. That knowledge just adds to who we really are inside and becomes apart of us forever.