Why Do We Travel? Why Should We Travel?
February 16, 2017
Why do we travel? Why should we travel? That is the question.
People travel for many reasons and purposes. Mrs. Roberts explained why she travels with a food metaphor: “If all you eat is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches then you don’t know what food is, and if you stay here then you will never know what the world is really like. We see everything from the internet not knowing if the facts are true about the world. The best way to truly know is to travel.”
Mrs. Roberts has been everywhere that you can think of, but, according to her, the most exquisite places she has ever traveled to are Cuba and Pakistan. Since the recent lifting of the Cuban travel ban, Americans are able to experience the Cuban culture for the first time since 1960’s. Due to the trade embargo, it makes it hard for Cuba to receive any modern day goods and resources. “Cuba is like visiting a place in time,” according to Mrs. Roberts.
On the other hand, Pakistan was a beautiful country. The culture in Pakistan is significantly different than any other countries, and before the rise of terrorism it was a friendly and easy place to travel to. The main reason Mrs. Roberts travels to Pakistan is because it has five of the world’s tallest mountains: K-2, Nanga Parbat, Gasherbrum I, Broad Peak, and Gasherbrum II.
Overall, according to Mrs. Roberts, “there are many reasons to travel, but one way to really know what the world is like is to travel, as Atticus Finch had proclaimed in To Kill A Mockingbird, ‘One way to really understand a person is to get in his skin to walk in his shoes for a while.’”
Mrs.Roberts by the Trango Towers in Pakistan
Unlike Mrs. Roberts, some people just stumble upon the idea of traveling. Jon Packwood, 11, heard that Mr. Lay was taking students on a trip to Europe in the summer of 2016. Jon had also seen a poster advertising the trip and began to gain interest. A meeting was held in early May, 2016 explaining all about the plans for the trip, flight times, etc. According to Jon, “I knew nine people were going on this trip but didn’t know anyone who was going with me.”
In early June, the flight took off to Europe. Of everything he packed, the most important thing Jon brought was a camera to take thousands of pictures of his travels. He visited many places and landmarks during the course of his adventure and thought it was educational and interesting. Some of the landmarks that he loved were Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, “which is about 826 years old and was founded in 1191.” Dublin, “which was crazy, and where I had the chance to see a ton of old artifacts,” and The Trinity Library, “which was very interesting because it had held over two-hundred thousand of the library’s oldest books, which date all the way back to 800 AD,” Jon said.
“I definitely plan to go again when the next trip comes,” said Jon, “and I’m very excited to see what else the world has to offer. What’s cool about traveling is exposing yourself to different cultures and learning about the diverse world around us. I encourage people to travel because there is so much more to the world to what we see in life.”
