A Traveller’s Education

Last week I spent five days in Singapore with Mumma Jorgs, and since it was the first time I had travelled with her in about eight years, I realised a couple of things – namely that I have a whole education in me now thanks to my extreme case of wanderlust. I suddenly knew how to do things in Singapore that my Mum didn’t. And what’s more, she was relying on me for it. It was like the roles had been reversed, and it was so odd, as all the other times I’d travelled with her I’d been much younger and she had been the one who had figured out how to get places, how to fix problems, how to get back on the right road when we got lost, how to handle dodgy taxi drivers. But now, it’s me.

It feels good, but scary. Just like that time, at barely 22 and so incredibly young in so many ways, I stepped onto a plane bound for London and left little old Perth behind for three months. I was beyond scared, but also beyond excited. No doubt my parents were worried (especially my Mum, who is a chronic, chronic worrier) that something terrible would happen to me, or that I wouldn’t be able to tackle the challenges travelling occasionally throws at you, but the second I stepped onto that plane and away from familiarity and comfort was the start of my traveller’s education.

Travelling teaches you things you can’t learn in school, or in university. Only the wanderlusters can step into the massive train stations of NYC, London, Paris or Hong Kong and feel confident they can tackle the routes that splay out on the map like veins through the body. Only wanderlusters learn to have the balls to politely but firmly ask for their passport back from a customs official in an airport who wants a bribe in exchange for giving it back. Only wanderlusters can add three nights of two minute noodle dinners and three mornings of free hostel pancakes and know it equals a $300 bridge climb in Sydney or a paraglide in Austria and that it is definitely the right answer to that mathematical equation. Only wanderlusters can have their minds expanded through the meeting of other travellers from far away countries, of other religions, of other races, of greater experience and become better people for it. Only wanderlusters can be so resourceful and quick thinking that they can track down their travel buddie’s dropped mobile phone on Hollywood Boulevard with just a few short phone calls and a bus ride.

In Singapore it was me who found and booked our hotel, made sure it was a good location, figured out the best way to get around and explored the recommendations given to me by friends and fellow crew when deciding what we should see and do during our time in the country. It was me who navigated the complex subway, with its huge escalators and dizzyingly big stations when my Mum just wanted to take a taxi because she saw it as less intimidating and much easier. It was me who educated her on liquids, aerosols and gels and the Smartgate machine at the airport.

And all these answers I had, I had gained through firsthand experience during my travels. Of course it helps that I am now a flight attendant and travel for work every week, but I learnt many things about travel before I even ever entered that profession.

I feel sorry for those who have yet to have the opportunity to learn on foreign soil and in tricky situations. I hope y’all get the opportunity soon. I feel sorry for those who think they don’t need to get a travellers education or who don’t want one. And I applaud and encourage those about to set off on an adventure and start their own traveller’s education – as nervous and apprehensive as they might be, when they return, whenever that may be, they will return a different person. A person able to tackle so much more than they could before they left and a person who will be so much more confident within themselves and compassionate, accepting and open to and of others.

I have a buddy who is about to set off on such an adventure in the coming months, so this blog entry is dedicated to her. Follow her journey as she attends a performing arts summer school in London and then her adventures through the rest of the UK and Europe by following her new blog at https://teashakespeareandthetraveller.wordpress.com/ .

Until next time wanderlusters,

Jorgs