Well, especially when you're "roughing it" while you're travelling (as the expression goes). I have travelled rough many times over the years - from since I was a young teenager camping (I don't need no blow up mattress, just give me a sleeping bag and a tent), to the numerous long flights and overnight train journeys without a bed just a seat, and to the many early morning and late night trips where I get only a mere few hours sleep. While travelling is fun, it is also ridiculously tiring, which is always failed to mention in travel brochures, and of course, when you're tired and haven't had a decent bed to sleep on or even had the privilege to shower, you begin to look haggard resulting in you aging faster than others.
I often come home from a trip and look myself in the mirror, and quite often am revolted with my reflection, with the massive black bags hanging beneath my eyes and noticing that my attempt to control my hair has failed, now it results in a frizzy mess which makes me look slightly crazy.
It's not only the exterior of myself that looks old, but I feel old inside. My back hurts. My neck hurts, I think I pulled a muscle and now it feels cramped. I have a mark on me, possibly a bruise or I have been bitten by something harmless, but no less, they have still decided to leave a mark on me, those pesty insects. Why does it hurt when I bend my fingers? Did I sleep on my hand? I'm dehydrated. I'm exhausted. I just want to sleep until tomorrow and be bright as the sun again.
As I get older in age, I start to begin to feel like my body can't handle the travel as well as it did 3 years ago, and perhaps I have become too accustomed to my home comforts. Alas when I am trying to crack my back, I often hear myself saying "I'm getting too old for travelling rough!"
It's a lie of course, I can still easily travel rough, and enjoy it - after the side effects have worn off and I don't look like an older woman, but a jolly and bright 20 year old. Yet travelling doesn't just age you in the physical sense, it also makes you old in your mind.
The idea that travelling makes you wiser because you have gained more knowledge from the outside world is definitely true. However, while I appreciate all I have learnt from the different cultures and countries I have visited, the knowledge I have appreciated most is self-knowledge: the many epiphanies I have during moments of travel when I am away from home.
When I first went on my big trip around Europe and UK alone for the first time when I was 18, I had left my home town having pissed off many of my high school friends. This simply because I was a know-it-all and thought I was better than my local town because I was doing far greater things and seeing the world, and I left with the threatening thought in my head that I wouldn't come home and wouldn't want to come home. (In fact I think I may have said this to one of my friends, that I might not return, and instead choose to study in the UK and not in Perth). However, when I began my trip of Europe with 50 other strangers (whom I would be with for the next 2 months) I was literally like a little fish in the ocean, whereas before I had felt like a big fish in a small pond. I was the youngest of the group, freshly 18, whereas majority of the group were 23 and above. No one really took me seriously, even if what I had say was something educational and relevant to the history of the country we were currently in. But they didn't care. They ignored my opinions and facts, they said I was too young to really know what I was talking about, and they thought I was some rich kid who was enjoying their gap year through their parents money funding them. It hurt a lot. Especially since I had been saving my own money for the last 2 and half years, so I was funding the trip myself; and furthermore I had just finished my university entrance studies on history, so when I said facts I was sure of what I was talking about. It wasn't everyone on the tour, but it was some, and it was enough to make me feel so completely small. Yet it was a good slap in the face, because seeing them being opinionated, 'know-it-alls', and smug towards me made me realise my own behaviour to how I acted back home. In high school I was always getting in arguments with others over nothing really, and the arguments would never get me anywhere, it was just an excuse I guess to really piss the other person off and perhaps maybe to feel powerful over them. It wasn't right, and there was no need for it. When you're a teenager though, you don't always realise these things until later on, and for me it was the year after I graduated. Spending time away from home really helped reflect on my actions in high school and who I really was as a person. And I didn't like what I saw. I didn't want to be that person who comes across as smug or opinionated. I had met those people on my trip in Europe, who were much older than me, and was so annoyed by how they treated me, so why would it be ok to treat others like that, especially the people who had been my friends for the last 5 years. So when I returned home, I wanted to be a better person. I tried being much nicer, a better friend, less opinionated (you don't always have to be right), less smug (above all, that was the most important, nobody likes a self-absorbed person, ever), and just really much more giving and kinder to everyone - even to those people who perhaps did annoy me at some point in life, but there is no point holding grudges, they never get you anywhere except becoming a bitter person who no one wants to invite to their birthday parties, since you ruin all the fun.
I hope I have become this better person that I seeked to be, and changed from my old ways (if any of my close friends, or family, are reading this, they can tell me if I have succeeded or not).
While my last trip abroad made me appreciate my friends much more (and of course my family) and made me reflect on myself, this trip abroad to Norway has definitely made me appreciate my home: Perth, so much more.
I used to be anti-Perth, I didn't exactly hate the city, but I wasn't completely in love with it. Especially with regards to work. I always said to myself (as my family, and close friends, would know) that as soon as I finished my degree I would more than likely move to the east coast, because there were more job opportunities there (for what I was studying, anyways). My view of Perth had always been "Well it is a nice city but there are so little opportunities here. It's definitely a great place to raise a family or retire, but to have a fulfilling career or to have a great social life, not exactly, the east coast takes it all". Yes I was cynical, but I have learned. Just before I left for Norway, I was volunteering at the local radio station and I also had a career mentor through my university who was offering me (and still offers me) much advice on career pathways in Perth. Through the radio station and my mentor, they helped me to discover, and in fact uncover, all the glories that Perth had to offer in regards to the arts/media/culture industry. It was as if they had forced me to take off my cynical blindfold and really open my eyes to what Perth had to offer - and there was so much. Thus, when I had to leave for Norway, I actually felt torn: I was excited for a new adventure, but I was just beginning to fall in love with my city and didn't want to be separated anymore. Since being here in Bergen, the love for Perth has grown ever stronger. I liked Bergen and did enjoy my time here, but there was a part of me always longing for Perth. My thoughts would often flicker to all the stuff I wanted to do when I get back, all the new places I could volunteer with. It was that last push I needed to make me realise that Perth is amazing, and I don't need to go the east coast to relish in a fulfilling career or great social life, because it was right on my doorstep the whole time.
So on that note, back to the whole point of the story, travelling really does make you older, in your maturity and mind. It is the one thing that makes you incredibly thankful for what you have and who you have in your life. It pushes you out of your comfort zone so much that it forces you to realise, and makes you reflect on yourself and your life. I'll always love travelling for the beautiful places I get to see, and the amazing new friends I get to meet, and of course the experiences it gives me - but it also makes me incredibly thankful. Thankful to my family and friends who support me, and still are loyal and love me even though I have gone off wandering for months on end. But they know I will always come back to them. And I always come back with even more love in my eyes for knowing they are still always there for me.
I relish every epiphany I have when I am away because it brings me closer to myself and of course to my real home.
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