On day three of travel week we are going look take a look at people who are not on currently on the road. These are the people who work 9-5s or are maybe in the processes of raising a family. And although they are not on the road, their minds are always on travel, and they are always planning their next trip. These are the words of Jenna Francisco, and this is what travel means to her:
What does travel mean to me? 
Learning.First, travel means learning about everything around me. I learnedthat incredible poverty exists when I saw shantytowns for the first time, the homeless children in Rio, or some of the conditions in Indonesia. Through that, I learned to be grateful for what I have. During my time living abroad, I learned to value a slower life focused on simple pleasures, and that people are fundamentally the same everywhere. I have also learned that I am just a speck in the history of the human race, which is so vast and amazing that I feel shivers when I see even little glimpses of it in the temples of Japan, the incredible art in Italy, the crumbling ruins of a long-ago kingdom in Moravia, or even the horrible gas chambers of a former concentration camp.
Travel also means learning about myself. It could be the little things one realizes about oneself while traveling, like that it’s really hard for me to sleep through noise or that I can’t travel without a bunch of good books to read. It could be bigger things, like that nationality is not important to me. I realized early on that I would prefer to be a citizen of the Earth than a citizen of the U.S.
I still have so much to learn from this big, beautiful, old Earth and its extraordinary people, and I hope to have many more journeys so that I can continue to learn and grow.
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Author Bio:
Jenna lives in Sacramento, California, but loves to get away whenever she can. She studied and lived abroad and has traveled extensively through Europe. She has a multi-cultural family and visits family every year in Brazil or Indonesia. As the mother of a toddler, she is learning new ways to travel. She enjoys sharing her adventures and connecting with other travelers on her blog Adventures of a 21st Century Famukyst and on Twitter (@FranciscoJenna).
I really like Jenna’s answers! It’s interesting how our answers to this question are unique. I completely agree with what Jenna said as we have discussed these thoughts before. However, my take on travel was completely different so interested to see how each of us views travel.
I love how you said you feel you are more a citizen of the Earth than an American. I feel the same way. I’m a global citizen. I love my country but not at the expense of any other. Traveling allows you to see that we are all the same deep down. I often find it funny how people think I mustn’t like my own country because I don’t live there- like I’m denying my Aussie heritage. When you consider yourself to be a child of the world, then every place is your home, and how then can you only limit yourself to having experiences in only one town in one country?
I also love the “citizen of the earth” vs “citizen of the US” – there is so much more out there to explore and discover
Yes, I agree. All it takes is spending real time with people from other countries to realize we are all the same (and that borders only separate us). I am very lucky to have a job that gives me that kind of contact even while I’m here in the U.S.
I also love the “citizen of the earth” vs “citizen of the US” – there is so much more out there to explore and discover