Visiting a developing nation was a very eye-opening experience for me because it’s one thing reading about poverty, but experiencing it directly is almost an out of body experience.#10 How can travel help me empathize with others and acknowledge my privilege in my everyday life? Moving forward, I will recalibrate my energy to sculpt my life around what my heart wants instead of what seems more digestible for my family. I am pursuing a film degree when actually my heart is in music. While abroad, I recognized I may be making decisions in my life out of fear disguised as practicality. #9 Did this trip give me any insights into a career path that may be better suited for me than what I’m currently studying? Or did it reinvigorate my passion for my current subject? I want to try to replicate this back home in Texas for my family during the winter because it’s a super cozy meal. In Scotland, I tried an amazing Shepherd’s pie recipe that used sweet potato instead of mashed potatoes and incorporated mint with the lamb.#8 What is one local dish or delicacy that I would like to try to replicate back home? I can use a similar technique to make sure that I schedule enough time to study for my exams and allocate enough time for free-time as well. The itinerary I constructed for my trip was very helpful in amplifying my time management skills. #7 What practical applications of what I’ve learned on this trip can I apply to my everyday life as a student? As an art history major, seeing the renaissance era sculpture of Michaelangelo’s David in person reiterated what I learned in the classroom about contrapposto poses.#6 How does this location’s history inform what I’ve learned in my studies this far? Who said learning only happens in the classroom? Make your professors proud and apply what you’ve learned on your trip by asking yourself these questions: When I met multiple people sustaining themselves through music alone in Scotland, my dream became a reality for me. I used to believe that I couldn’t pursue my career in music because it wouldn’t pay the bills.#5 Did I gain clarity on my life’s purpose during this trip? If so, how? In fact, usually those aren’t authentic to the local cuisine or day-to-day life of the location. I do not need fancy dinners and lavish excursions to enjoy a new location. I used to think the two were mutually exclusive. There are a lot of ways to travel cheap, but still have an incredible time.#4 What did I learn that may prove relevant for future travels? I believe that I am using travel to amplify my life because Scotland provides the opportunity to create a full-time music career whereas other locations would have too high of a cost of living to do so viably.#3 Am I using travel as a distraction or to amplify my life? If I want to live from a place of wholeness, I need to acknowledge this tendency to self-abandon and take back my energy for myself.

When they do not reciprocate my feelings, I feel low self-worth and insecurity. When I chase men who are not emotionally available, I am actually abandoning myself in the process.#2 What feeling(s) did this trip bring up for me to acknowledge? By reliving this pattern, I was able to step into awareness and decide to transcend the cycle by changing my living situation. On this trip, I found myself confronting old patterns of codependency as I relived, almost to a ‘T’, a relationship with a person so similar to my ex whom I had just left a year prior.#1 How did this trip mirror inner work I need to focus on? Here are a few diary prompts to deconstruct the experiences that you’ve had: Travel provides a great opportunity for introspection and transformation. So if you find yourself staring at those blank pages like a deer in the headlights, we have a few travel journal prompts to get your hand moving! Travel Diary Questions To Ask Yourself Looking back on it now, it was because I never really knew where to start. Even in grade school, I used to cover my black composition book with stickers and write in it as a diary only to give up on it a week later. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve bought a blank journal at my local bookstore with these grand ideas of detailing my life only to never use it. Creating your own travel journal can be hard work.

Travel journal template