Issue: Winter 2024 | Author: Ilena Banks | Photography: Ilena Banks
After 7 months of full time exploration, a few lessons have stuck with me. I've gone trekking up mountains with strangers and broken bread with men who had never met an American. I've found solidarity with my fellow countrymen abroad, and been saddened by anti-black sentiment. Every single experience has been worth it, and made me more myself.
Now, I didn’t set off on my travels because of a bad breakup or my life falling apart - this isn’t Eat, Pray, Love. I’m the girl who’d always wanted to lose myself in a “foreign” land. My dream was hopping from place to place and making friends along the way.
If you dream of faraway lands and spiritual experiences a million miles from home, all those dreams are possible for you. In the meantime, read on to discover seven life lessons I’ve learned as a long-term traveler.
We all like to believe we “live in the moment” and are present for the things that matter. The truth is, life is what happens while we’re making other plans. We spend so much time preoccupied with what’s wrong - and what’s to come - that the magic of the present moment passes us by.
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Fine Dining. Fine Details. Dinner at Tanaman, Bali
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