I was brought up pretty sheltered. In school, I was a bewildered teen. As a young adult I drank and hung out with the 'wrong' crowds. I had simply grown up believing that life happens in a particular way, and that those ways will just happen. I was stuck on religion, and on the idea that school happens, then university happens, then you find love and get married, that you buy a house, have children and then live happily ever after.

It wasn't until I was already in my mid-twenties that it started to dawn on me that this is not necessarily the case, that other factors are involved, that these things do not simply 'just happen' but need to be earned... but it also came with an understanding that I had some power to choose my own path. When I travelled barriers fell, religion dissolved, illusions were eroded and cultural acceptances multiplied as my interest in different places, people, lifestyles and customs grew.

It's a fascinating world we live in, and travel is a gift. International travel is not accessible to everyone, but we can all travel one way or another, we can all open up our spheres and expand ourselves by taking ourselves to new places, into nature, by talking to people from outside our 'usual' circles, by watching others with open hearts and minds. We should all be travellers, always...