Everything You Think is Normal Could Be Different

I think this is one of the most powerful ideas about travel. Everything you are used to in your daily life that you think is normal could be different. It’s hard to remember that. It’s usually invisible since these are the fundamental assumptions you didn’t know you had until you see it done another way. The most surprising things for me are the things that seem the most normal.

A few that come to mind: Language — whatever language you know and learned first seems “normal” but there are a lot of other languages out there that are normal to others. What side of the road you drive on. Seems like right is normal, but not everywhere. What’s a normal job. What’s a normal food. How many years you go to school, how the school is broken up, and if you go to school at all. The list goes on and on. For me, it is easy to think “oh, this is how it is” and forget that things could be very different.