WGU - Travel

 Abigail Ellis

Section 11

12/10/23

Travel

Travel, as Kant wrote, is a good means of broadening one's knowledge of the world. This section of Why Grow Up talks about how your view of the world is subjective and you miss out on so much more than you realize if you don’t travel. In the book it says that “globalization gives us the illusion of knowing other cultures far better than we do.”  A metaphor from Augustine that goes hand in hand with that is, 'the world is a book, and those who do not travel know only one page.’ I’ve traveled and gone on cruises to other states and countries, and meeting different people has changed my perspective a lot. Getting to know people, their stories, and where they’re from is fascinating and forces you out of only your own perspective. I feel like a lot of people struggle with seeing things from anyone else’s point of view.

A quote from Why Grow Up is, “If you do not travel you are likely to suppose your own cultural assumptions to make up human reality - for you can only recognize what those assumptions are if you have lived in a place that runs on different ones. Travel is as important for learning about yourself and your own culture as it is for understanding others.” Rousseau believed that travel is a crucial part of coming of age, but that just going places isn’t enough, you need to know how to travel. Those who do not walk, sit sadly, like prisoners, in a small, closed-up cage.

This chapter also talks about how universities will send students abroad, but they never actually get the opportunity to learn the culture or really experience what they went there to experience, which can change their view on traveling. This chapter says that the best way to learn while traveling is to live and work there, learn another language, fully immerse yourself. a quote that goes with that is, “Working lets you learn what tourists cannot know.”

My favorite quote from this chapter is, “All it costs is a ticket to get there and the decision to reject the voices that tell you such journeys are impossible. Perhaps they do not want you to understand where you came from: for that's the greatest gift that travel will give you.” The thing about traveling that I think is so beautiful is that traveling is different for everyone, and people can get different experiences from the same trip.

 

 

                                                 Discussion Questions

        1.    Do you think traveling is important?

        2.    Do you have any traveling experiences that changed you?