Transformational Travel

The Road to Self-Discovery, Enculturation and Independent Learning

Imagine that one night, you are out walking and you come upon a man. He is in the light of a street lamp, scanning the pavement, obviously looking for something. You kindly offer him some help but it soon becomes apparent that there is nothing to be found.

So you ask, "Where did you lose this thing that you are looking for?"

He replies, "Oh, I lost it in front of my house," pointing to a dark area of the street.

Puzzled, you inquire, "Why are you looking here instead of there?"

"Because this is where the light is, of course," the man indignantly responds.

In a sense, an individual who only understands one culture is like this man, unable to see beyond his own culture and unaware of the limitations that his own culture imposes upon them. The destination is an unknown, dark territory and the familiarity of light is easy to be drawn to. Instead of relying on the known one can broaden their circle of light through learning.

The aim of this work is to suggest a way to expand your thinking in general by immersing yourself in other cultures. By becoming enculturated (immersed in a different culture) you can raise your awareness of alternate possibilities. Being aware of alternative possibilities opens up many avenues of thought. For example, seeing familiar ideas from new perspectives is a form of mental exercise, adding flexibility and creativity to a person's thoughts. For some people, seeing familiar ideas in a new way can even lead to transformation. Under the right circumstances, the new perspective causes them to reject the familiar idea and adopt the unfamiliar. This is learning at its best.

Transformation

A challenge in education is to guide people through the unfamiliar, into areas of knowledge that they find dark and foreboding. True learning is transformational; an area that was dark is suddenly lit up. Imagine the light that came on in Archimedes' mind that made him shout "Eureka!" and run naked through the streets of Cyracuse. This work suggests a specific approach to travel that encourages such transformational learning.

When I went with the study abroad program Quest for Knowledge, I responded to the education given me in a new setting. I learned more about ancient Greece than I would have in a classroom. However, the knowledge outside textbook information was gathered away from the class. Traveling on my own opened me up to new experiences, which I would not have obtained had I just traveled with the class. I was able to learn more about myself through interactions with others. It was possible for me to become enriched with every new interaction, which changed my overall thinking due to its integration with my own mind set. Everyone I met became a part of me, which enabled me to draw upon different angles and different modes of thinking. These relationships with others led to a deeper understanding of individuals and of myself as an individual. No longer was I only a representative of my culture, but a combination of every culture I came in contact with. This provides for a ripple effect, because this quest for knowledge isn't about learning what other cultures are like in order to categorize them, but to integrate them within yourself, which will inevitably lead to a richer connection with every social interaction. This will allow yourself and others to have a deeper understanding of societies as a whole.

Ideas	Significant Differences of Cultures, Transformational Travel, And a Hotel as An Agora
Practices	Greek Culture and Achieving Transformational Travel
Artifacts	The Odyssey as a Cognitive Artifact, Communication and Self-Transformation

Lisa Ghali was a student at New York University in the Gallatin Program. Her areas of concentration were Media Technology, Speech Communications, and Tourism.