Traveling brings perspective – Campus Current

Before this summer, I had never left the country before, even though I always desperately wanted to. So when my father asked me if I would travel with him to Canada to visit my Canadian relatives, I was quick to say yes.
Why be stuck within one world when there are hundreds out there to explore?
Foreign nations are the closest thing we have to parallel worlds. It’s always been so interesting to me how people can live completely different lives from ours and how we know so little about them.
We could know more, though. Even if you can’t travel, you can still take history classes, browse the internet and otherwise take an interest in other countries, especially those that are so close to us, like Canada.
Each country has a vast history, a vast web of events that shaped them. In understanding how a nation came to be and how the people were shaped by these events, it allows you to broaden your perspective.
I will never forget approaching the Canadian border with my father. Seeing how busy and packed it was, seeing the national flag of Canada waving proudly. I had rarely ever seen a flag other than our own in person.
Everything was new to me and I welcomed it all with open arms.
I officially entered Canada at 10:56 a.m. on May 18.
Canada truly felt like a different dimension to me. Or rather, a strange dream where everything was so different yet somehow familiar.
No one knew what I meant when I said “miles,” “feet” or “inches.” It was always “kilometers,” “meters” and “centimeters.” I had to quickly figure out how to translate the imperial system into the metric system when speaking with my relatives or other Canadian locals about the size or distance of something. It is only through that translation that I could convey the sheer scale of my journey to others.
The signs on the road were in English and French, or in French only, not in English only or English and Spanish. It was an incredibly rewarding experience to understand all of the French I heard and saw on signs and on packages, and to be understood when I spoke my intermediate-level French with the locals.
Visiting Canada showed me what it was like to be in a world that is foreign to me. It opened my eyes to the possibilities out there, and just how many unique experiences I can have and unique perspectives I can understand if I just go out and look for them.