Why I Don’t Want to Stop Being a Tourist

The word tourist sometimes has a negative connotation. There are definitely tourists who give the word a bad reputation, but I think being a tourist is such a privilege.

You get the opportunity to be somewhere new, surrounded by unfamiliarity.

If you read my past blog about seeking discomfort, you know how amazing it can be to be presented with the opportunity to say yes and try something new. To immerse yourself in a different culture. To experience something you’ve never experienced before. To be a little uncomfortable and see what comes from it.

To be a tourist means you get to be somewhere new and expand your horizons.

At home, it’s easy to fall into a routine. You wake up, make your coffee, go to work, come home, see the same people, go to the same places, and do the things you already know you enjoy. There’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, there’s something comforting about it.

But when you’re a tourist, that routine is interrupted in the best possible way.

Instead of making your daily coffee at home, you might walk down the street and try the local café. You interact with someone new. You order something you’ve never had before. You make small talk with the person next to you. You learn a random fact about the neighborhood. You turn a corner and see a view you didn’t expect.

It’s just coffee. But it’s also not just coffee.

One small change in your routine can give you an entirely new perspective.

Of course, being a tourist is typically associated with being in a new destination away from home. But I think you can be a tourist in your own city, too.

Merriam-Webster defines a tourist as “a person who travels for pleasure.” But travel is a pretty vague concept. You can travel across the world, across the city, or simply down the street to try somewhere new.

You don’t have to have a passport to be a tourist.

How boring would life be if we already knew everything?

There’s a saying: “If you’re the smartest person in the room, then you’re in the wrong room.” The idea is simple: surround yourself with people who challenge you, teach you something, and give you the opportunity to grow.

I think travel works the same way.

Being a tourist puts you in unfamiliar rooms, literally and figuratively.

You’re exposed to new people.

New places.

New foods.

New languages.

New traditions.

New perspectives.

New ways of doing things.

And that exposure is valuable.

It reminds you that the way you do something isn’t necessarily the only way to do it. That the things you consider normal might be completely foreign to someone else. That there are entire communities, cultures, foods, traditions, and stories that you know nothing about.

And how lucky are we to have so much left to discover?

The world is enormous. There is so much we don’t know, so much we haven’t seen, and so many people we haven’t met.

So I don’t want to stop being a tourist.

I want to keep being curious. I want to keep trying the unfamiliar restaurant, taking the wrong turn, talking to the stranger, ordering something I can’t pronounce, and waking up somewhere I’ve never been before.

And maybe most importantly, I want to bring that mindset home with me… being a tourist isn’t really about where you are. It’s about how you choose to see the world.

So be a tourist. Ask questions. Try something new. Take the long way home. Walk into the café you’ve passed a hundred times but never entered.

Embrace the uncertainty. Soak in the unfamiliarity.

There’s always something new to discover.