The Rabbit Hole

Question: How does a girl who falls - no, actually, she jumps, eyes open, down a rabbit hole, plummeting into chaos, come out the other end unchanged?
The answer? She doesn't.

This quote comes from Little Black Book, a chick flick I watched once in high school and again this week on Netflix. It's a movie that has represented my life in so many ways as of late, but regarding travel, this quote says SO much! 

No matter how seasoned anyone is as a traveler, visiting a new place and becoming immersed in a new culture for hours, days, or even months tosses a person into a sort of chaos, a realm of the unknown. There are different levels of preparedness for tackling this sort of chaos, and in a way I thrive off of making sense of the chaos of visiting new places. But this element of uncertainty that is present with any form of travel is a large part of what I believe makes travel so alluring. There is always risk associated with traveling, but with risks come rewards. Not all travel experiences are full of fun and excitement, but all are great adventures in the end. 

There is no way that anyone can come away from those experiences unchanged. Sometimes a trip will only change you a little, but more often than not travel has the power to affect people in profound ways. A lot of people like to say travel helped them learn a lot about themselves. I think that is a great way to learn from your experiences, but seeing the effect of the travel industry on a variety of places I love having grown up in Hawaii and visited family in Thailand over the years, I try not to look at travel in a way that seems so selfish, for lack of a better word. From my perspective, travel and tourism is about the interaction between the locals and the tourists, and both groups come away changed in different ways. So sure, I always learn little things about myself from the trips I have taken, but mostly I love learning more about my place in this world.

Jumping off a (short) cliff on Maunawili Falls at home on Oahu, Summer 2009