Why do we travel?
“We travel to see. To learn. To find out first-hand for ourselves…” (“Oh, the places you’ll go…“)
Vanity Fair‘s Editor on Travel, Michelle Jana Chan introduced the 2018 issue with her article, “Oh, the places you’ll go…” She highlights the reasons why someone would travel and extols the benefits of travelling for the person and society.
Through several short personal anecdotes Chan illuminates various people she has encountered in her travels throughout the world and implies how encountering these people of different countries and cultures has made them real in a way that simply hearing about them secondhand wouldn’t.
“I have a romantic belief that world peace can be achieved through travel (and that the emissions from plane travel can be offset by avoiding war and its massive carbon footprint). […]
At the very least, travel fosters empathy.” (“Oh, the places you’ll go…“)
Although empathy is the more whimsical benefit, travelling itself can make a life more interesting.
“…it’s also the most fun ever. If I had only a year left of life, I’d hit the road for 365 days. Without question. Travel slows down the perception of the passage of time. It magnifies the moment. I live more zestfully.” (“Oh, the places you’ll go…“)