What is your greatest mind-opening activity?
For me, it’s always been travel. Whether it’s been a quick border run or satisfying a bucket-list dream, visiting other countries has expanded my thinking, altered my perceptions, given me perspective, infused gratitude, and helped me connect to the greater world around me. It has made me a better me.
Thus was the case when my husband and I recently ventured to Medellin, Colombia.
Now, given that I came into adulthood in the early ’90s (don’t do the math), Medellin wasn’t high on my list until recently. Deemed the “murder capital of the world,” in the late 80’s – early ’90s, thanks to Pablo Escobar, Medellin is truly a phoenix-rising-from-the-ashes-story. The city, once plagued with violence, now throbs with creativity. They have some of the most inventive restaurants and shops I’ve ever seen. Glorious murals fill every urban void, making little room for the kind of graffiti that scars most cities of its size. The massive skyscrapers reaching high into the sky, enveloped by the surrounding mountains, are a backdrop that becomes even more breathtaking as you take the metro cable up the mountain and glimpse the scope of the place that 6 million people call home. The food, the culture, the music, the story, the language, the warmth of the people, create a symphony that will stay with me forever.
Medellin is magical.
But I wouldn’t have known that had I not experienced it for myself.
We all carry outdated perceptions of places and people that no longer apply. Sometimes they never did. Our prejudices are well-honed by years of neglect.
I encourage you to move beyond your own backyard. To see and know the world. Whether it’s through travel or literature or movies or social media, challenge your perceptions. Cultivate your curiosity. Be willing to let go of what you think is true to discover what you didn’t realize is real.
Your quest to know and understand others will lead you to find a reward beyond measure. For what you will discover…
is yourself.
©A Thoughtful Company, LLC, 2021
My place of outdated perceptions is definitely Morocco. I know my “worry” – that it would be my first journey outside North and South America, and Northern / Western Europe. But I got a slight taste of it a few years back when we traveled to parts of southern Spain. I loved the atmosphere and culture. Now, if we could just get beyond COVID….
Oh how wonderful, Jeff! Morocco is definitely on my list (it’s a looooooong list)! The irony about traveling during this time, is that I feel safer being outside the US than I did when I was there…
Thanks so much for sharing, Dennis! I appreciate you!
Always a pleasure, Kimberly…