Bernardo’s “This I Believe” speech
Traveling
“The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes”. I’ve always liked this quotation by Marcel Proust since the first time I heard it, but only in the last months I have really understood what it means.
I’ve always liked to travel. I’ve had many opportunities since I was a child, and I’ve always tried to go to as many places as possible. I might not have been the typical tourist that takes pictures of everything and goes to all the famous places, but, still, I was seeking the new landscapes that Proust is talking about.
But then my year as an exchange student came. I had thousands of expectations about that, and I thought that I would have been having a lot of fun since the beginning. This didn’t happen, but day after day, despite how bored and homesick I was, I started realizing that anyway the experience was really worthwhile. Here were the new eyes.
When someone travels to see a monument, a city or a place, then he’s just looking for new landscapes. It’s when the desire of understanding moves a person that the new eyes are found.
I believe traveling is the way people can get to real tolerance toward other cultures and therefore to global peace. Reading in a book is not enough to understand why something happens; it’s only by living in a reality that you understand it fully. And I believe that if every country leader was an open minded traveler, war would be much less likely to happen. Everybody always think they are right, but with traveling you see different uses and costumes. To begin with, you consider them wrong; but after the initial shock, you start appreciating the new uses you found, and you realize that no country, people or culture is perfect. This is the foundation of global understanding.
Many people think traveling is a privilege, and they think they can’t afford that, but traveling is a state of mind. It’s living with an open mind and be every day ready to try new things without prejudice. Going to an ethnic restaurant will teach you something you didn’t know, and even if you don’t have any different culture to find out about, you can still live your life in the same place with this attitude and still find out how to live life better.
I’m not sure how many of you understand what I’m saying. If I think of myself just six months ago, I remember I didn’t get the real meaning of Marcel Proust’s quotation, even if someone explained it to me. And it’s only by traveling that you can understand why having new eyes is better than finding new landscapes. I believe in traveling.
