Explore. Dream. Discover (yourself).

I nodded off in LA… and woke up in Taipei.

By the time wheels touched earth again, it was Friday morning. I'd somehow skipped Thursday - not once setting foot on the ground (or seeing the sun for that matter) for the entirety of the day.

Such is worldwide travel.

Exiting the plane, I was slapped in the face with a world of new.

New sights, new smells, new languages. Nothing like I had ever experienced before, having never before been to Asia.

Now, I HAVE been a lot of "new" places in my life.

I count myself as incredibly lucky to have had the opportunities I have.

I've lived (and "studied") in Spain, making life long friends with locals and travelers alike. I have stood atop German tables in packed halls, stein in hand, belting out newly-learned drinking songs surrounded by friends new and old. I have traveled to remote towns buried deep in the mountains of Morocco, climbed Icelandic glaciers, surfed Costa Rican swells, and traipsed the streets of cities I've long forgotten the names of.

But nothing prepares you for new "new".

And this might just be what I love most about travel, of exploring new places and cultures.

The reminder that no matter where you are from or what you have experienced, there is and always will be people, places, and things that are completely different.

Different ways of living, different ways of looking at things. Different ways of being.

Not better - not worse - just, different.

And these worlds have existed, and will continue to exist, rolling on and on, you or I be damned.

This reminder that our bubbles aren't the only ones is one that I think every person needs to experience.

This new perspective, or rather more like a "popping" of old perspective, can be incredibly eye opening.

And at times, it can also be a bit painful.

Much like the David Foster Wallace essay "This Is Water" talks about - we swim in the waters of our experience, often without realizing that we've been submersed at all.

Born and raised in the river, we paddle along, content in our comfortable cultural context.

Going to a new place - being tossed into a different river, or maybe a lake, or, god forbid, the vast ocean - can feel like a tearing down of everything you've known, a shedding of the protective layers, burning down the scaffolding and structure that you've built your entire life upon.

We often don't realize how much we rely on these existing world views, how much our personality and our way of doing and being have to do with where we live and where we have been.

We get so caught up in those bubbles, our carefully constructed worlds, that it is easy to forget the wide world only a day of travel, and often less, away.

Going to new places, then, involves a release of the pieces of us tied to those old places and old patterns.

A return to our core, a melting away of the things unneccesary, or the things that aren't truly you.

This burning of our old selves - this popping of perspective - is a beautiful thing, when we can learn to lean into it.

Traversed with open mind, open eyes, and an open heart, we're gifted a fresh take, a view into who we really are, without all that has been piled on top.

Discovering what's left can leave you with clarity and a deeper understanding, a clearer answer to the question "who am I, really?".

That, plus gratitude for the little things, and a new perspective on what it means to be a human on this planet Earth that we all call home.

So take a trip, explore our beautiful, diverse world. Pop your bubble, burn it all down, and see what sprouts from the ashes.

My guess is that you're much more than you give yourself credit for, and you need much less.

Explore the world, and you are bound to discover yourself - so long as you are open to it.