By: Bernardo Berndsen
I wrote this not to long ago for NPR’s This I Believe. If your not familiar with the segment This I Believe. It’s a written and oral presentation of beliefs people have; usually outlining an experience in their lives that brought their belief into fruition. If you’ve never heard of This I Believe, I recommend checking it out, it can be very inspirational. I decided to share this because I believe that travel is a wonderful thing that brings character and understanding to a person. And I feel that travel will make you a better person both professionally and personally. Please enjoy and let me know what you think.
This I Believe, Travel
I believe in travel. Travel is much deeper than just the voyage from one place to the other. Travel is an experience, it is an adventure but most importantly of all, travel opens your world; it opens your mind it changes the way you think.
Being like most Americans, I began my life here as an immigrant, I had moved to Los Angles from Brasilia Brazil. I was young and at the time, I didn’t understand why we were moving or enjoyed the fact that we were. But we did and I was still too young to really understand what a difference it would be.
My parents have always been avid travelers, and while in California we traveled everywhere. We visited the Rocky Mountains and saw snow for the first time. We visited San Francesco and I rode a trolley. We visited Las Vegas and got to experience the mesmerizing lights, while walking the strip under the desert sky. I was young then and didn’t really know why we visited all these places, but we did.
A few years later my father got a job offer in Washington D.C so again we moved. This time I was older I had friends, I liked my school in California; it was nice. I didn’t want to leave. Again we moved and again my parents made us travel. We went to Pennsylvania to see the Amish, to New York City, to get to know the real China Town and Broadway. I got to see the gators in Florida, and civil war reenactments in Virginia.
And as I became older my own appetite for travel grew, I visited Canada and saw Niagara Falls, I visited family in Paris France and got to stand underneath the Eiffel Tower. I went to Mexico and ate flat tacos and visited Germany, to see where my German heritage came from.
From all my travels I come back, back to my home in Virginia, but I come back different, I come back changed. I come back with new stories and experiences; I come back with more knowledge of the world. I understand why people jump the boarder to find better opportunities; how public transportation can be wonderful; the power of Niagara and understand why people spoke so highly of its magnificence.
Travel is what has allowed me to be trilingual, with no accent in two of the languages I speak. Travel has made me understand more about what is happening in the world and why things are the way they are. Travel is what has made me the person I’m today, it has opened my mind and has changed me. Travel will make you better this I believe.
Bernardo Berndsen 