Practicing Global Citizenship
Olivia LLanio
Study abroad in Australia in 2019 at age 20
When I was 20, I moved across the world. I was lucky enough and hardworking enough to take an abroad semester during university, and knew it needed to be Australia. I’d been dreaming about it since elementary school, and took the opportunity as soon as it came. During the height of summer, I packed my suitcases and said my goodbyes. Before I even made it out of the country, I was problem solving. Navigating delays and missed flights, I was practicing perseverance and acceptance from day zero. I was making conversation with strangers and earning wisdom from others’ lessons around the world even before I left the airport.
Travel can be daunting, especially for people who don’t have the privilege of practicing it often. It takes a certain degree of adaptability and plasticity, something learned through experience and carried through every door you walk into. While I was lucky enough to travel with a ‘safety net’ of going to school in Australia, it was still a grand lesson of self discovery and expansion. I met people from places I could only dream of visiting, with perspectives and experiences deeply unlike my own. Especially coming from the United States, we often have an underdeveloped sense of the true size and scope of the larger world we’re living in. How different other cultures are, and the deep rooted reasons for those differences. We can easily forget how interconnected we are with our fellow people all across the globe, and travel rips us out from behind those blinders in a necessary way.
Travel, real travel, forces you out of your comfort zone and into a world that is teeming with life and unfamiliarity. It shows you firsthand that learning is a life skill, and curiosity is a superpower. There are joy and stories to be found in travel, like eating kangaroo or hiking volcanoes, but there is a profound sense of connection to be found as well. That connection— that full-body awareness of the world around you is one that, if really listened to, can change your whole perspective.
That time not only allowed me to see places I’d dreamed of, but it showed me firsthand the vast range of how people can walk through life. I got to see people who lived with little on Indonesian islands have a kindness and generosity than most people I’ve met, and learn about how Australians culturally and legislatively eradicate homelessness. I began to understand how the United States impacts countries on the other side of the world through experiencing it with my own eyes. I learned about events I’d studied in school from perspectives of peoples that weren’t the ones who’d dropped nuclear bombs. In every sense you could imagine, I’d widened my perspective.
About three months after I returned from Australia, there was a global pandemic. It limited my travel and altered my circumstances, but I knew seeing the world was and still is a priority in my life. Throughout jobs and domestic travel I’d been looking for (and saving for) my next big travel experience— not vacation. Fast forward to 25, I moved abroad again. This time with no safety net— no cohort of people paid to make sure I stayed sane, or built-in community to socialize with. I packed my bags and went to teach in Spain. This experience was one which reignited the simmering travel urge I’d been holding since I was in Australia. This endeavor was far more independent, immersing myself in new culture and language entirely alone. I was building community from the ground up. This time, the cultures were even more different and I had even more of an opportunity to learn. There were lifestyles and microcultures I learned through living in them, widening my worldview with every step. Now, at 26, I am taking these lessons stateside once more. I am changed every time I see a new part of the world, a new way of living. It makes me a better friend, partner and citizen. I will never stop travelling, or learning. But the lessons I learn walk with me always, and I have the honor and responsibility to integrate those positive impacts into my own life and my community, when I can.
To me, travel is a non-negotiable aspect of life. The world is far too large to not see more of it— a new town, state, or country, whenever possible. Any time I go to a new place, I learn things— about myself, the place, about people in general. Travel has and continues to teach me real-world lessons of listening, understanding, empathy and compassion. It has made me someone who is engaged in my community, both locally and globally. It empowers me to see change for issues and causes close to my heart, and has activated in me a sense of commitment to change and improving the world. My worldview and my ability to weather a storm is a result of my travels. Without doubt, I am who I am as a direct result of the exposure I have had to the larger world around me.
