Trystan Trenberth credits childhood trips to Spain, France, and the U.S. with breaking stereotypes and reshaping his goals. He points to passport ownership jumping from 3% in 2003 to over 36%, and argues that young people who travel abroad gain understanding that stays with them. He shares practical routes: volunteering, remote work, exchange programs.
Questions this video answers
March 20, 2024
10 days
85% (claim by speaker)
90% (claim by speaker)
3% held passports until 2003; in the last couple of years that's grown to over 36%
Chapters
Debex Amplifying voices Accelerating Change Please help me welcome to the stage Tristan Trenberth. I was fortunate to have parents who valued travel and I had many opportunities to do so at a young age. I remember my first overseas trip as a child to the coast of Spain. Sun, sea and snorkeling. I spent so much time peering at the bottom of the ocean, looking at colorful fish, sea life and creatures that I'd never seen back home. I became aware that there was so much more that was on the surface. The trip changed my perspective on life. This fueled my hunger to find more amazing places to see around the world. My next trip was to northern France. I took an immersive trip on a French exchange. I stayed with a family for 10 days and their son came and stayed with us for the same amount of time. The trip was very different from any other trip that I had done. It was away from my family and effectively staying in the home of a stranger. Yet it felt very familiar. Despite their radically different language, customs and cuisine, their kindness transcended all. And at that moment, I saw that all human beings were essentially the same at the core. Without that trip, I may never have gained that insight. My next Big adventure America. The perception I had of Americans was through television watching shows like the A Team and the Dukes of Hazard. So I had perceived all Americans to be lawless, gun toting hillbillies. That was soon changed. When I visited Palm Beach, Florida, I saw affluence like I'd never seen before. And this shifted my view of the US Drastically. Initially, I felt a little out of place. People all seemed so wealthy, a far cry from the humble rural town that I grew up in. Once I began talking to and connecting with the affluent, I realized that they were down to earth and we shared the same core values. And I became to feel quite at home. While in the US I experienced my first fourth of July celebration. I connected with the patriotic feeling and it caused me to reflect on my own country's customs and traditions. I became proud of my own nation's traditions such as the changing of the guard, the Queen's Christmas speech and the sounds of Big Ben. My traveling relationships outside my own country changed my whole view and broke all of the stereotypes I previously held about Americans. I realized that immersing myself with people was key to understanding cultures. Seeing what was possible to achieve in America gave me drive. And now I had a bigger picture of the world and what was available. Because I traveled outside my own country, I created new goals. And within a couple of years. I changed careers due to the Internet. There is so much information, but also disinformation about the world outside our own countries. It's a challenge to tell what is true and what is not. But when you leave your own borders and immerse yourself in a new culture, this is where our preconceived notions are challenged and we can see things for what they really are. Travelling allows us to gather our own evidence through experience and make our own points of view. Often we'll find this is in conflict with what we've heard, read and seen at home. When we see the world with a whole new view, we can't help but change our perspective on life. Did you know that 85% of Americans who traveled in their youth connected to their heritage much more strongly? And a whopping 90% of Americans who did educational trips in their youth said that it drastically changed their education and their careers, just as it did mine. The excitement builds even before you leave for your trip. Just booking it changes your experience of life today. You realize there are preparations to be done, looking up research to see where to go and what delicacies to try, and maybe some of which you want to avoid. It's really a humbling experience when you think about it. When you arrive in a new country for the first time, to the people you meet, you are only the person that stands in front of them. It's irrelevant whether you drive a Mazda or a Mercedes. Back at home, you are simply you. And you get to create whatever you desire with a clean canvas. But it seems Americans don't really travel. Until 2003, only 3% of Americans held passports. Only. In the last couple of years, that's grown to over 36%. But that's mainly due to the State Department's requirement for passports to travel to Canada and Mexico. People from the UK on average, travel to 10 countries during their life. Germans 8. The French 5. What about America? On average, you visit just three. So other than not having a passport, what is it that keeps you from traveling overseas? Is it a cost concern? Is it a time constraint or an inconvenience? If this is the greatest country on earth, how do you measure the best against the rest? If you have never even left your borders? Whatever your concern, there are so many ways to see and experience other countries. How about a trip to a foreign country to help them rebuild after a natural disaster, such as my friends did in Haiti with the Peace Corps? There's a website called remote.com. they help you match you with jobs which are remote freelance work that enables you to travel the world while maintaining gainful employment. Or how about volunteering to save the turtles in a place like Guatemala? There's a site called seethewild.org in exchange for some of your time, they organize heavily discounted travel. Not just you, but also maybe a family now. And if your children are at college age, help them get onto an exchange program, just like I did. It'll get them out of the summer heat and it'll get them out of your hair. We all have a mental list, don't we? Places we've seen in movies, on tv. Was it London? Maybe Venice or China? I challenge you to write down the first three places on your list. Make a bold commitment to yourself so that before the end of the year, you plan and book, travel somewhere to one of these places. In 2019, imagine a life filled with travel, relationships and authentic experiences that shape and reshape each and every one of us. Now that is the life I choose. How about you? Thank you very much.
