My oldest daughter recently completed a week-long excursion to London this past summer.  It is a tradition started by my mother.  Whenever one of her grandchildren reaches their 15^th birthday, Grandma will take them on a trip – anywhere they want to go.

Pretty awesome gift, huh?  She’s accompanied grand-kids to Paris and on a cruise to the Scandinavian countries (with Germany and Russia thrown in for good measure).  My youngest is eagerly waiting in anticipation for her turn in two years (her choice right now is Ireland, but things could change.  Two years ago she was sure she wanted to go to the “Mall of America”).

It was the same for my brother and me growing up.  My mother took us everywhere.  New Mexico, Ohio, Bermuda, Niagara Falls, Washington D.C, road trips to Florida – I have a jacket full of souvenir patches from my travels with Mom.  We covered a lot of ground as kids – and it was awesome.

How could that not change a person?

That, my dear friends, is what travel does.  My mother understood that.

It broadens perspective.  It demonstrates that the world is a vast and varied place, full of different people and different cultures.  It gets an individual out of their comfort zone.  It builds self-confidence and a wider awareness.  It teaches compromise.  One quickly learns that “their way” is not necessarily the “right way” or the “only way”.

All of these skills and attributes are extremely useful later in life, and the younger (as well as more often) a child is exposed to them through travel, the more comfortable they will be as adults.  You don’t need to gallivant around the globe to reap the rewards of travel.  Vacations to different parts of the United States can also do wonders for widening a growing mind’s view of the world at large.

We’ve taken our kids with us just about everywhere – on cruises to Alaska, to Germany (when they were still in elementary school) to see relatives, and to the mountains of Tennessee (just to name a few).  To their credit, travel has made them eager to try new experiences, not shy away from them.  They’ve formed their own opinions of places and people (not blindly relying on what is told to them).

When my oldest daughter returned from London, travel had changed her yet again.  No, not in any outwardly discernable way, mind you – but she was somehow – different.  She talked on and on about how she’d someday return to Europe and spend more time there (maybe a trip to Paris next time?).  She raved about London’s public transportation and how easy it was to get around.  She saw great landmarks and monuments – some of which she had only previously read about in books (i.e. the Tower of London, Stonehenge, Stratford-upon-Avon, etc.).  She went to the theater.  She rode to the top of the “London Eye” for a breathtaking view of the London cityscape.  What a wonderful tapestry of sights, sounds, and events to add to her growing list of life experiences.  All of this at the ripe-old age of 15.

As my mother used to always tell us growing up, “the world is a big place – go and see it while you can. [insert name of hometown] will always be here when you get back.”

Yet another true life lesson from Mom.