Me with Jama, my amazing tour guide of Robben Island in Cape Town
The wonderful crew of White Shark Projects
My fellow traveler friends!
There’s a
lot of negative news going around all over the world today- it’s hard not to
notice that. Words like fear, danger, and terrorism get thrown around a lot.
With all of this information going around, people are basically trained to
believe that the world is not a safe place. This thought is nailed into our
heads nearly every time we open a newspaper or jump on the Internet. If one
thing has been made very clear in the past few years, it’s that terrorism is
virtually omnipresent- these horrible events can happen anywhere. An airport in
Brussels, a concert venue in Paris or Manchester, a nightclub in Orlando- these
tragedies don’t focus on one country or type of place. In fact, they seem so
random that they trigger a sense of panic whenever we hear about the latest
attack, because we have no idea what could come next. People who have planned
international travel, and even travel within their own country, begin to
question if they should go through with their plans. Should they reroute the
Paris trip they’ve dreamed of for so long to New York or Australia? Should they
reschedule that trip to the UK until the panic subsides and security increases?
Or should they nix that dream trip altogether, since it’s just not worth the
risk?
I don’t know
the answer to these questions, but I do know this- we shouldn’t let these
all-too-common tragedies control our lives, as travelers and as people. If we
lived our lives focused solely on avoiding risk, we’d never leave our homes.
Nowhere in the world is void of potential danger. In my experience as a
traveler, I’ve learned to take just about everything I hear about other places
with a grain of salt. I remember how much I was warned about the dangers of
going to South Africa, how many people said I was so brave, being a twenty-something
year old white American girl traveling there alone. Here’s a little story that
I haven’t previously written down about one evening in Cape Town. I was sitting
at a bar at a restaurant on the V&A Waterfront, looking out at the beautiful
city lights reflected on the water, enjoying the moment, when someone sat down
next to me and struck up a conversation. I noticed his thick South African
accent as soon as he opened his mouth, and we talked about where I was from,
what I was doing in South Africa, and life in general. He ordered us a couple
of beers, and when I offered to pay, he gently pushed my money away. When I
started to thank him, he said something I’ll always remember. “No need to thank
me. The way we look at it here, you have traveled all this way just to meet us,
and that is a huge honor.”
That is just
one of my many experiences seeing the kindness and generosity of strangers,
people that I’ve been told are dangerous and untrustworthy. While there are
people in this world that commit terrible acts of violence, my travels have
solidified my belief that most people would rather help you than hurt you. And,
because of moments like that, we should never stop traveling. We should never
stop smiling at strangers, and never stop striking up a conversation with them
over a coffee or beer. I think this has always been important, but it is now
more than ever. Travel tears down prejudices, eliminates fear and hatred, and
turns strangers into friends.
I’m not
telling anyone to be careless. Do your research when picking a place to travel.
Look up travel advisories and listen to their advice. Be cautious, and make
informed decisions about where to go. But DO go. Book that plane ticket. Pack
some bravery and hope, and go out into the world. It’s okay to be afraid, but
don’t let that fear stop you from traveling. In this age of constant panic and
terror, it will undoubtedly be a life-changing decision. This post’s food for
thought: “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away
from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream.
Discover.”- Mark Twain
