It goes without saying: travel has so many benefits. One of the greatest rewards of travel is taking empowering steps in self-development.
There is something beautiful and uniquely Nigerian about road trips. Call it what you like, be it-manifest destiny, wanderlust, the hunger for adventure. Few times on a road trip feels like a brand-new opportunity to explore Nigeria, like opening a book and pointing randomly to what you may experience that day and what you’ll experience in your life. There are numerous benefits of a road trip, including engaging with your country, with the landscape, in a different and more openhearted way.
While it’s tempting to look at the road as a metaphor for life, however, it’s more sort of a funhouse mirror. Road trips help me be the person I wish I were and help me to work out that I’m that person if I let myself.
This post provides some benefits of a road trip, including how I’ve seen these benefits directly play out on my own road trips.
- Road trips help you live in the moment.
I enjoy the scenery immediately around me lustfully without thinking about the scenery in the past or in the future, because I might never see this scenery again. Taking a road trip helps you to induce off the beaten path and see actual communities and natural wonders. Meandering through the countryside could be a great way to relax and discover what it’s really like to measure in an exceedingly particular area. Farmers’ markets, local festivals, and state parks are yours to explore.
- Road trips help you maintain perspective.
When you have 700 miles to drive, there’s no point stressing about a couple of traffic jams. One more hour of driving then you have two more days to go, it is so obvious that it is not an enormous deal. If you see something interesting on the side of the road, you can stop and take a glance. This freedom and suppleness of traveling by car is perhaps the biggest perk of a road trip, and its value can’t be overstated.
- Road trips give you the opportunity to handle stressors with aplomb
Getting a flat tire, or getting stuck in serious traffic congestions are a few things that will normally “throw off’ my whole day, becomes a chance to slow down. In fact, it gives me the possibility to look at the sunrise, discuss with people I wouldn’t otherwise talk to, and obtain recommendations about things I wouldn’t otherwise realize. Road trips facilitate your wait with the people around you.
- Road trips help you connect with people with no expectations.
Knowing that I could never see someone again, but still wanting that moment of connection, allows for there to be no expectations or needs or fears of being defeated. There’s just an open-hearted point of contact and offering of self. Travelers share a love of adventure and exploration; that’s why once we travel, we tend to finish up finding and connecting with like-minded souls. What better way to feed your own travel bug and encourage leaps of faith than to be regaled with tales from free-spirited travelers who are on their own journey?
- Road trips give you time to think.
When it’s just you in an exceeding car for 6 hours a day, you get the possibility to think through some things in your life, with the extra good thing about the clarity that comes with distance.
- Road trips help you remember good things.
In my daily life, I generally forget to take pictures… which suggests I often don’t have physical (or digital) reminders of the great times I’ve had. When I’m on a trip, I take pictures of the things I discover and make a degree to recollect the experiences, reminders that I’m living the life I need to be living.
I experienced all of these benefits and more on my last big solo road trip to Benin City, Edo State. Let us know some benefits you’ve enjoyed from your past road trips in the comment section below. Enjoy your next trip!
