A fresh start
I have been lucky enough to start 2024 in the best possible way: leaving on Dec. 31st 2023 for a travel abroad!
Like I always tell my kids, the best way to spend our money is by traveling.
My family and I visited Australia for the first time and spent almost a month there. Nothing can give you so many memories and life lessons like getting out of your certainties and trying new things, putting yourself to the test and open your mind to new ideas.
Apart from seeing new places, different landscapes, a completely unexpected food array, traveling gifts you with deeper treasures. You learn to even out differences, to accept the unknown, to open your mind and embrace things you would not imagine before.
I must admit I did not live vegemite, but I can say I know how it tastes now.I also brought back home with me some uplifting habits, like waking up early morning and go for a nice run in the dark.
Breaking the routine
Traveling also gives you a good break from the regular everyday routine: doing the same things in the same way everyday kind of flattens your brain out.
To tell the truth, I am so blessed as to live in a beautiful place and have a job that I love and is never the same, but at the same time things can become very monotonous.
When you are traveling, instead, everything is a new challenge; you don’t know what to expect and this helps you stepping out of your confirm zone. You can prove to yourself, once again, that you can achieve much more than you think. It’s a way to reconfirm to yourself that you still can make it.
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger
To a certain extent, we all believe in stereotypes and biases. Let’s be honest. Once you travel and meet new cultures, though, you realize there are so many shades of life you cannot simply sum everything up in a silly belief. Not all Italians have mustache and play mandolino. And Australia isn’t as dangerous as we are told. We need to experience things in order to understand them fully. Do not take for true all the information you are told. Believe in what you really know firsthand.
A lifetime lesson
I came home from our magic journey feeling grateful, enriched and rested. We walked 10 km almost every day and saw amazing places. My family swam, SUPd, rode a bike, traveled by train, tram, metro, plain, ferry and much more.
But above all, what I will cherish the most, is the baggage of experiences and mind-opening lessons my kids brought home. This trip, like any other, taught them to be confident, not afraid of new things and gave them self-esteem. I probably could never have showed therm all these things myself. This, to me, is how you master the fina art of traveling.