Opinion Piece by Hannah Whitesides

Everyone has their own daily routine. For some, it gives them a sense of control and comfort. For others, it makes them feel trapped if it doesn’t change every once in a while. As you can probably already guess, I fall in the category of feeling trapped in my routine. So what do I do? Well, I usually try anything I can to escape that feeling. I have found a certain love in travel movies because it ignites a spark in me that I feel like I’ve lost from time to time.

My favorite movie about travel is Eat, Pray, Love starring Julia Roberts (Liz). It’s based on a true story about a woman who gave up her whole life to travel the world for a year. In that year she learned about culture, religion, and mostly herself. No matter where you are in your own life, Liz is someone we can all relate to in one aspect or another. 

The reasons behind my own travels are rooted in my goal to grow as a person. To know myself better, to heal from past struggles, and to mature intellectually by becoming less ignorant and more aware. The following quote from Eat, Pray, Love is what traveling means to me: 

“My friend took me to the most amazing place the other day, it’s called the Augusteum. Octavian Augustus built it to house his remains. When the barbarians came, they trashed it along with everything else. The great Augustus, Rome’s first true great Emperor, how could he have imagined that Rome, the whole world as far as he was concerned, would one day be in ruins?

It’s one of the quietest and loneliest places in Rome. The city has grown up around it over centuries, feels like a precious wound, like a heartache you won’t let go of…as it hurts too good. We all want things to stay the same, David. Settle for living in misery because we’re afraid of change, of things crumbling to ruins.

Then I looked around this place, at the chaos it’s endured, the way it’s been adapted, burnt, pillaged then found a way to build itself back up again and I was reassured. Maybe my life hasn’t been so chaotic, it’s just the world that is and the only real trap is getting attached to any of it.”

Ruin is a gift. Ruin is the road to transformation.

Even in this eternal city, the Augusteum showed me that we must always be prepared for endless waves of transformation.”

For anyone who has traveled and has seen ruins, it’s just another broken stone structure that has history attached and maybe a few ghosts (if you’re a dark tourist kind of person). But that broken stone structure is also a representation of transformation. The old city of Jerusalem was first constructed in 3000 BC and since has been built on top of itself 3 times and it still stands. It adapts, rebuilds, and stands strong through it all. Recognize that and apply it to your own life and happiness. We all travel to escape something, maybe we should be traveling to find what will bring us peace and life.

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Project Passport is a mental empowerment retreat and event company created to help women connect with one another and gain the tools to improve their lives in the best way possible. Each retreat experience has a unique theme with carefully designed activities to help participants grow and experience transformation. We are making mental wellness the norm, one retreat at a time. Learn more at project-passport.com.