I know how big the temptation is to just stay home forever and never even move out of your bed.
After all, your home is the happiest place there is. It’s where your bed is – not just any bed but yours – the one where you know exactly how far you can roll over before you fall out, how to place your arm to be in the ultimately comfortable position to sleep and where you can sleep till noon and it’s the best feeling ever. You have your fridge with all the things that you want and need. And most importantly, you have your people around you, close enough to get a smile or a hug whenever you need one and understanding enough to leave you alone when you’re drained.
Home is a safe place, it’s where we feel comfortable and great.

I’m not going to lie – if you travel you are going to miss all of this and probably many other things as well. Terribly. I did. I still do.

But I never wanted to stay in my room forever. I wanted to see the world, live in different places, meet cool people and just get to know the beautiful planet I’m living on. I was happy in my room, but I was always dreaming of being somewhere else nevertheless. I think this is one of the most human things. We can be as happy as possible but we still find things that we desperately need.

So, even if you do try to travel and then realize that you think it’s terrible and you hate it, it wasn’t wasted time. Traveling helps you to realize what you actually have at home and it also helps you realize what you really want and need. It gives you a totally new perspective and so many things to learn. It puts you in situations you would have never voluntarily walked into and that may suck in the moment it’s happening but it also helps you grow. You may not realize it at first though.

I think many people have false conceptions when it comes to traveling. Or maybe it does work for them, I don’t know. But I heard so many people talking about how they were extremely shy and anxious before they went to live in a different country and when they came back, they were a changed man. That’s not the case for me. I think it is safe to say that when I come back home, I will still awkwardly wait in the corner of a grocery store till someone else goes to the counter so that I can cue behind them. I will still avoid shops that are empty except for the employees. I will still hate making small talk with strangers.

But at the same time it is also safe to say that I will be more secure. I will know me and my boundaries better than I do now, because I’ve tested them and I strechted them. Maybe I will feel better about going into a fitting room in a clothing store because I know that I can do it. Maybe I will avoid taking busses because I’ve figured out that they make me uncomfortable and I prefer the underground. Traveling is not about changing yourself. It’s about getting to know yourself.

Think about what you want to achieve in life. For me, that is my biggest motivation. I want to study Creative Writing in England and I want to become an author for living. For some very self-conscious girl who’s been living in a small village in Germany with 500 people and a couple of cows all her life, that’s a huge thing.
I see these five months as a test round, collecting all the data for the real thing. How do things work in England, who are the people living there, what food do they eat, how does self checkout work?
I see them as prove to myself that I can do it. That I can live on my own, in a country I don’t really know and that I won’t only just work but, more importantly, be happy there.
And I see them as an experience I can put in a future novel. Because if I just stay in my room all day and don’t go on any adventure, I won’t have anything to write about.

So yes, traveling is scary. Getting out of your room is scary. But it is worth it.