GLOBETROTTERS WRITING PROMPT
November Monthly Challenge — Being Grateful for Being Able to Travel
From gratitude for travel opportunities to friendly strangers that helped us find our bearings abroad
November is the month of Thanksgiving and even if none of us editors currently live in a country where Thanksgiving is celebrated, we decided it’s still a good topic for our monthly challenge and not only because most of our readers are Americans.
Gratitude is something we should bring more into the daylight. Being grateful for what we have instead of complaining about what we don’t have can have a major impact on our mental health.
If you show others you’re grateful for seeing them or that you’re thankful for what they’ve done for you, you might create smiles on two faces at the same time. It’s a win-win situation I’d say.
And this behavior of being thankful for what we have or being grateful for the opportunities we were given can be transplanted into our traveler’s life as well.
Just now I stumbled upon a sentence from a fellow writer here at Globetrotters who said such an important sentence — a sentence we all should take by heart when exploring other cultures.
“It’s just a matter of remembering that travel to other countries is a privilege, not a right, and you are a foreigner.” — Michael Rhodes in Ugly American — Don’t Be One When You Travel
This is something I try to do when traveling abroad, especially when visiting a third-world country. You meet people who’ve never been outside of their village. Imagine their worldview. Of course, they won’t understand how you can travel, where you come from, and why you just can’t give them some of your money.
But when we travel we also encounter a lot of kindness and help from strangers. I can’t count how many times men have helped me navigate through the country of Ghana. I say men, because yes, mostly men were out on the streets and gave me directions on how to get from A to B.
I also do remember many experiences when other travelers helped me to get to my destination or they simply traveled with me and made my time as a solo traveler so much more fun.
There are so many people I have to thank and so many encounters I am grateful for. But all of that wouldn’t have been possible if my parents didn’t plant that seed of traveling in my upbringing. They raised me into the independent but curious person I am today.
And therefore I travel.
To see the world and to learn more about this world we live in.
Let’s all step in and share our stories.
Being Grateful for Being Able to Travel.
Here is some inspiration for you:
Is there a certain travel memory you’re grateful for?
Did you meet someone abroad who helped you not get lost?
Are you grateful for the opportunity of getting a job abroad?
Are you grateful for the friends you made while traveling?
Do you have one travel memory that changed the path of your life?
We’re looking forward to your submissions. As always, at the end of the month, the editors of Globetrotters will announce their personal winners. While we do submit our entries as well, we do not take part in the competition.
Please remember to follow our guidelines when submitting an article:
- The maximum article length must be 10 minutes.
- Always credit your images, even if they are your own. Please review our image policy if unsure.
- Write your article in the form title-subtitle-title image.
- Please add the tag “monthly challenge”.
- Make sure that travel is still a focus of your story.
- The challenge will run from November 1st until November 29th. We reserve the last day of the month to post the results from the challenge.
- For more clarification on submissions, visit the Globetrotters submission guidelines.
We, the team of editors at Globetrotters (Adrienne, JoAnn, Jillian & Anne), want to thank each of you for contributing to our publication. You’ve sent so many fascinating articles on past challenges and we can’t wait for the next ones.
Thank you.
JoAnn Ryan has kicked off this challenge with “A Glorious Month of Travel-Related Thankfulness Here at Globetrotters”:
Read here the final post of our previous monthly challenge. We asked you to share your spooky stories from around the world. In this article, the editors announce their personal winners:
