Yaya

Travel will not change your life. Not straight away. Any transformative experience takes years to bear its fruit. You don't see the benefits for a long time. After talking to many travellers over the years, this doesn't sit so well sometimes. People want instant gratification for their experience (not to mention fucking 'likes'). If they get it, it's a false form of gratification which doesn't stay long. Any pivotal experience is like a tender cut of beef in a slow cooker. It will sit there in the background for months and years, with the lessons and moments sitting in your subconscious. That's why I call BS on people who come back from big trips and declare: "This trip changed my life!" No it didn't, pumpkin. You just had an awesome time. That's why Insta and Tiktok give such a false reality of any glamorous trip or experience. It's a highlight reel. The real lessons take a lot longer to come out. Any lesson you learn takes practice to become good at. The patience you learned in a Bangkok market, the ability to communicate without a common language in Poland or climbing a mountain in the Rockies. You don't get good at those in the space of a few weeks. Instead, you sit there and go "What the fuck am I doing?" for the most part. It's only when you reflect, usually from home at what you did well. What you learned and what you would do better next time. You stew on these for years and years. Slowly pulling apart that experience and making those learnings part of you. It's why your nostalgic travel memories are so powerful. At that time, you aren't thinking you are experiencing a life-changing moment. You are just 'doing shit'. Instead, they become memories you reflect on constantly, hope to go back to and do all over again. I'm no different. When I spent weeks in Nepal in the mountains, I wasn't experiencing a 'life-changing' moment. I was just wanting to get some oxygen in my lungs and go have a beer in Kathmandu. Years later, my memories are different. I have taken years to absorb the learnings. Ones I reflect on years later and still put to use today. I talk about them often if you haven't figured out yet. This doesn't just apply to travel. It applies on all aspects of your life. Anyway. Take this for what you will. As Keanu Reeves says: "I'm at the stage of my life where I keep out of arguments. Even if you tell me 1 + 1 = 5, you're absolutely correct. Enjoy"