It was a privilege to interview Carly Nogawski in our office this week. Carly has a very interesting story and boasts over 50,000 followers on her well known Instagram channel. Carly’s Instagram page Light Travels has gone through quite the evolution over the years! Initially, it was a place where she shared travel hacks and budget guides, in hopes to educate others how affordable travel can actually be.

During her year-long trip around the world, she ended up spending LESS money than I would have spent living in LA. After coming to this realization, that’s when she knew she needed to share all her money hacks and findings with the world- especially with her friends and family growing more and more mystified by her travel lifestyle. Carly shares why it is crucial for everyone to travel for their mind, health and joy:!

1. Traveling is easier than you think

We believe that traveling around the world shouldn’t be hard: it’s actually something everyone should be able to do at least once in their lives. Whether you choose to spend a few years or just a couple months traveling this beautiful planet, it’s important to see what’s out there. It’s up to you to make the dream come true and take the first step. Launch TripPlanner to piece together and price your ideal route. Not sure where to start? You can always check out Carly’s blog www.light-travels.co to gain some inspiration!

2. Travel opens your eyes.

If you’re open and willing, travel will make you an incredibly more well-rounded human being. And that’s really the goal, isn’t it? For Carly, she says she has grown so much as a human being with all of her travels and believes there’s an entire world of endless opportunities out there, with billions of people with unique stories.

3. Traveling helps you learn who you are.

All the challenges and opportunities travel lays at your feet help you discover who you are in a way that’s only possible on the road. There’s no doubt you’ll be faced with challenges when you travel, but these are the moments that make you feel so much stronger when you prevail.

4. Travel creates meaningful relationships

People you meet while on the road become some of the most valued names on your contact list. They become places on the map to visit later on. These people give you a glimpse outside your hometown circle of friends and force you to take in new and refreshing perspectives, and ultimately realize that everyone is the same and that we are all human no matter where we are from.

5. Traveling develops skills you didn’t know you had

Sometimes it’s only far from home that you realize you you’ve got skills you’ve never used. It’s travel that brings them to the surface and makes you smile, satisfied to have reached a mountain top in South Africa, or found your way home in a completely foreign town, or even to have successfully ordered a meal at a rural Thai restaurant.

6. Travel helps you learn new languages

There’s something satisfying about being able to throw around a few words of French, knowing how to say thanks in Thai, pulling out that long dormant Spanish to book a room in Madrid, or simply hearing a language you didn’t know existed just a few weeks before.

7. Travel means adventure

Walking through the majestic Machu Pichu in Peru, successfully navigating the maze-like streets of Venice, bartering for the best price in the traditional markets of Marrakech, taking a speed boat through the Amalfi Coast, or hopping in a Land Rover and heading out to watch animals grazing during and African Safari: these are adventures worth having. People are hardwired for the excitement of adventure and travel may just be the best way to tap into it.

8. Traveling gives you perspective

Meeting people from other cultures will teach you that the way you’ve been looking at the world isn’t the way everybody else does. In fact, your point-of-view might have some major blind spots. Seeing the world for yourself will improve your vision and your grip on reality. By stepping outside of the bubble that she lives in when at home, Carly says that traveling has given her so much empathy for the world and all the different types of people that inhabit it.

9. Travel helps you move forward

If you’re between jobs, schools, kids, or relationships, around the world travel can be a perfect way to move from one of these life stages into your next great adventure. A big trip won’t just ease your transition into the next stage of your life, it’ll give you a chance to reflect on where you’ve been, where you’re going, and where you want to end up.

10. Travel is education

Seeing the world provides an education that’s absolutely impossible get in school. Travel teaches you economy, politics, history, geography, and sociology in an intense, hands-on way no class will. Fortunately, the school of travel is always taking applications, no entrance exam required.