National Geographic’s 2012 “Travelers of the Year”

There appear to be a few common threads in what people want to know when hearing a travel tale: What was the most bizarre thing you saw there? How did you prepare for your trip? Biggest regret? What would you say to someone who wants to do something like this but is afraid?

The questions asked of National Geographic’s “Travelers of the Year” hit upon age-old questions that reveal that people want to travel more, but don’t always know how, whether that stems from fear of leaving one’s comfort zone or the perceived lack of time or funds. The discussion tonight with photographer Theron Humphrey of This Wild Idea, teenager Booker Mitchell of Booker Travels, high school librarian Paula Busey, and travel writer Heather Greenwood Davis of Globetrotting Mama demonstrated the variety of ways in which people make space in their lives to travel.

Booker’s words resonated with the audience and the others in the panel when he emphasized that you don’t need that much time or money to travel: You can be a traveler in your own city. You can choose a new way to walk (or skateboard, in his case) to work every day, and in a city the size of NYC you’d never see the same thing two days in a row.

Heather, who traveled to many different countries on an extended trip with her husband and two young children, noted that most people expressed concern when she told them what she was doing – concern that she was endangering her kids by taking them out of school and into the rest of the world for a year. She felt this was mostly fear directed at places that were far away. This kind of distance is, of course, more than geographic. Psychological distance is more difficult to overcome than physical distance. Paula spoke about how she brought a Maasai warrior to meet her high school students in Colorado as a way of beginning to bridge that distance.

Theron, spurred on by a broken heart, a death in the family, and a dull job in product photography, hit the road for a year in his truck interviewing and photographing strangers. Every day for a full 365 days, he recorded a person’s life story through photographs and interview clips. The impressive result is This Wild Idea, funded entirely by a Kickstarter campaign, as well as a couple of fun side projects. He drove 66,000 miles around the United States, walked up to strangers every day, and learned about the real value of personal connection. Because after all, travel isn’t about being able to say you saw the pyramids at Giza or flew around the world, it’s about your own experience. It’s about how it changes you.

This was an inspiring conversation, and one that more people need to have. If you’re interested in reading more about these stories and others, go to Travelers of the Year. Video from tonight’s event will also be up on that site when available. Go forth and learn!