What Traveling the World Teaches You About Love

 

I have now been traveling for over 400 days and I can honestly tell you that those 400 days educated me more than my four years in college. I had the pleasure to get to know all kinds of cultures, to explore places that nearly no tourist has ever been to and to meet amazing, interesting and incredibly genuine people along the way.

While my college education taught me to think rationally and to solve problems in a logic way, traveling the world taught me to listen to my heart and to open my heart. I know that it sounds a bit cheesy, but traveling the world taught me how to love and made me experience how powerful it is to be loved.

Thanks to dozens of beautiful women that I met on the road, that I shared my stories and my time with and that I got to know on an extremely deep level, I experienced what it really means to love. If I hadn’t left my tiny hometown, I would still be a frustrated young man who is convinced that real love only exists in the movies. You can’t believe how thankful I am that I packed my bags and booked the first flight. You can’t believe how thankful I am that I didn’t listen to the naysayers. And you probably also can’t believe how happy I am to share the following insights about giving and receiving love with you.

Traveling Can Increase Your Chance to Find love

One day I realized that leaving the safe and secure borders of your home country exponentially increases your chances to find love. I made this realization on the day I fell in love with a Polish girl who I met in Warsaw. I had to travel to three countries, talk to hundreds of women and go on dozens of dates to find a girl who I fell in love with, but it was worth it. Even though I didn’t end up in a relationship with her, our love was more intense than 90% of the relationships my friends were in. And that’s exactly the point I try to make. You have certain values, beliefs and characteristics and finding a woman who is perfect for you is not that easy. Unfortunately, a lot of men pretend that it is easy by ending up in relationships with girls they met in their social circle or at their university. While I don’t say that all those relationships are unhappy and doomed to fail, I can’t deny that a lot of people are in relationships with partners that are anything but perfect for them. One of the reasons why they are trapped in those relationships is because their pool of potential partners is so small that they have to end up with someone who is not their ideal partner.

Love Can Come in Many Forms

While I am truly thankful for all the beautiful women who were happy to spend their time with me, I am also thankful for the amazing friendships that I made during my crazy journey. I now have friends in Poland, in Bangkok, In England, in Malaysia and in all kinds of other countries. I am thankful that traveling gave me the opportunity to meet so many different people from all kinds of different social and cultural backgrounds. Of course most of the people I met on the road ended up being acquaintances, but I am proud to say that a handful of guys I met during the last year are now close friends who I wouldn’t miss for the world.

Love is Not Racist

Racism still exists. Everyone who claims the opposite hasn’t seen enough YouTube videos are filled with stupid and ignorant hate comments. It’s sad, but it’s true. What traveling the world taught me is that love is not racist. I connected with women who had dark skin and who had light skin. When it comes to love, it doesn’t matter if you are black or white and it also doesn’t matter if the girl you are in love with is black or white. The sad truth is that no matter who you date, some people will have something against it. You most likely can’t change them, but you can change your own attitude by hitting the road and by allowing yourself to connect with people from different cultural backgrounds. By doing this you will inevitably learn that loving someone who has white skin is the same as loving someone who has dark skin. It’s a beautiful feeling.

Love Doesn’t Need Words

The funniest moments on my journey were the moments when I looked into the eyes of an incredibly beautiful woman who smiled at me like a happy kid but didn’t understand a word I said. Yep, that’s going to happen to you, at least when you travel to a country in which the majority of people don’t speak English. But guess what? It doesn’t really matter. Of course it is easier to connect with someone when you speak the same language, but that doesn’t mean that it is impossible to connect when you don’t understand every single word. Sometimes all you need is eye contact, an inviting body language and a smile that says more than thousand words.

Love Comes When You Least Expect It

I met my girlfriend in Thailand and I am proud to say that she is the most beautiful, intelligent and supportive person I have ever met. But if you would ask me if I planned to fall in love with her I’d have to answer with “no”. I definitely didn’t plan to fall in love with her. In fact, when I met her I just wanted to keep it casual and enjoy a few days or weeks with her before traveling to the next country. Never in a million years did I plan to fall in love with her. That just happened. Love comes when you least expect it, but that doesn’t mean that you have to reject it. Embrace it, even when it comes at a time at which you think that you are not ready for it. If it is true love, you will be ready for it.

Contributing writer Sebastian Harris is a world traveler with a Masters in Psychology.