By Roadjunky, Posted Nov 25, 2006
Sections: Travel Virgins The Young Travel Virgin The Mature First Time Traveler Travel Essentials Common Fears Unplug from the Matrix Coming Back Home
"Hey..What's that? Oh...I'm at the top of Mt. Vesuvius. Just called to say hi!" http://www.flickr.com/photos/seandreilinger/
Time was that travelers all swooped down hopefully on the nearest post office to see if any mail was waiting for them. Parcels and letters were often missed and then collected again two or three years later. It was like a lottery that you had only a 50-50 chance of winning. If you got three or four letters during your trip you could count yourself pretty lucky.
Email revolutionised all that. Now anywhere you find backpackers you find internet cafes. People travel thousands of miles to broaden their minds and then spend the best part of their day chatting to friends back home on Messenger.
The same is happening with cell phones. It’s still too expensive to be a regular feature of most trips but the day will come that every traveller will be broadcasting back live video to friends and families.
Disconnect. If you want to grow and learn you need to cut the strings from home as much as possible. You can’t keep one foot in two worlds. It’s like going swimming and keeping your feet on the bottom all the while. To really appreciate another culture, to begin to understand yourself, you need to leave behind all that previously defined you. It will all be waiting for you when you go back so make the most of your time away to leave it all behind.
So unplug yourself from the Matrix and buckle your seat, Dorothy, coz Kansas is going bye-bye..
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