Why Travel?

So why bother travelling?
Earlier in my life it was to "escape" a life I "couldn't stand" and other dramatic reasonings of a teenager.
Then, it was to "explore" and assimilate into another culture, if only for a brief amount of time, and to inevitably return to my home craving more.

Now, this second reason still holds true somewhat, exploration of other cultures is one of the most rewarding reasons to travel. My focus now, after spending the past 3.5 years reading and learning about the world around me, is to understand by example. Through the intensive study of European and Latin American History, as well as European and Latin American politics, in addition to general political theory and Global Comparative Politics, I have built a basic framework for how I understand things in the world to be. I have studied influential political documents, books and manifestos. I have pieced together global connections and started to grasp the un-fleeting importance of globalization in this 21st century. I have personally researched extensively on the subjects of the development of nationalism in France and Latin America, also, the state of education in South Africa.

I am ready now, to see the world through new eyes, through an educated mind which will not rest. I will not stop asking questions, challenging things we so often accept as fact. I will not lament systems of old without dreaming up a solution of new. I will be proactive, not just observing anything, but doing, immersing myself, and helping to be apart of the change I want to see in the world.

This trip to South Africa, to teach, is not merely an "escape" or a chance to "see" life elsewhere. It is a chance to change, to develop and to progress. With the things I learn in Cape Town, I will start to make work in developing democracies a priority, while taking inspiration in order to help change the one I am a citizen of.


Take a moment to consider something previously unconsidered by you. That is what I am doing, and I will continue to say "yes" when I previously might have said "no." Continuous growth, continuous progression. Don't look back, only forward. Only consider what is to come.


-ac