Be a Tourist in Your Own Country

As my time here winds down, I continue to think more and more about returning home. I’m excited, yes, but I am also skeptical. 

What’s it gonna be like when I recognize all the faces I see around my town? What’s it gonna be like when I know how to get around the area? What’s it gonna be like when I know what the food tastes like before I try it?

The thing that makes travel so exciting is the unfamiliarity. Everything is new, everything is exciting, everything is an opportunity to learn.

Or is that just a perception? 

When I walk to class in the morning, I am excited by the flowers, the trees, the birds. I take out my camera to capture the beauty of the sky during sunset. I spark up a conversation with the person next to me at the restaurant. 

But what I’ve started to realize is that the value I attribute to all that I do here in Asia is a product of my perspective. 

In America, there are flowers. There are trees. There are birds. There is a beautiful sky at sunset, and there is a stranger beside me in the restaurant. 

But at home, I let those things go unnoticed. I diagnose them as “familiar” before I examine their true value. I rarely take that extra moment to appreciate what’s before me because I subconsciously assume it will still be there tomorrow... I will still be there tomorrow. 

What if I lived like I was a tourist in my own country?

What if I viewed my town like I view Chiang Mai - as a city that is my home, but only temporarily. After all, our lives are impermanent, and consequently so are our surroundings and the ability to experience it all at full value.  

I’m apprehensive about going home because I’m afraid I’ll be bored. I’m afraid I will run out of new things to do and new people to meet. 

But what I’ve decided, is that if I live every day like I am a tourist in my own country, I will never run out of new things to do. I will never run out of new people to meet. And I bet I will come to appreciate the world around me much more than I had before. 

The world can be as big or as small as we want depending on how we choose to see it.