Blog > Traveling is Reordering

There is a beautiful thing about traveling, which is primarily the way it reorders the priorities of one’s own facets. What do I mean by that? I mean that certain characteristics of one's personality are valued more or less depending on the context in which you live.

An aspect of yourself might be considered insignificant or even out of place in your hometown, yet it could be appreciated—or even important and vital—in a faraway land. I thought about this while reflecting on the places I’ve traveled, where I had the impression that parts of me considered dormant at home had become more evident and sought after there.

It could be a way of eating, a way of greeting people, a way of debating, or simply how one behaves in public. In this way, traveling gave me the opportunity to exhume aspects of myself that I personally considered important, but which weren't an advantage in the place I was born. Traveling has given me this above all else: it allowed me to evaluate my qualities in an entirely new light, no longer seeing them as flaws or weaknesses.

In my particular case, I found a deep affinity with Eastern countries due to my innate tendencies. The attraction to mystery, silence, calmness, depth, abstraction, are traits I was able to expand upon in the East naturally, without the sense of being observed.

Ma Yuan - A Mountain Path in Spring