Travel is broadening

I’m sitting in Awake Coffee Company in Conyers, Georgia, killing an hour before I meet with a client in this area. I’m also communicating with my team in Atlanta via Glip. I’ve actually glipped them a few pictures of this place, because it’s really pretty cozy, the food is good, the coffee is good, and the wifi is fast. Really a great place to spend some time.

My team is almost exclusively Millennials, and almost exclusively intown dwellers. Most have never traveled this far outside the Perimeter. To them, I might as well be somewhere in Europe.

Which is what brings me to the concept of travel. Most of us, when we think about travel, think about getting on a plane and going to some exotic, or at least faraway locale. There is value in this kind of travel. Exposure to other architectures, other cultures, different ways that people live.

I’d like you to consider another kind of travel. The value you get will be similar. You’ll be exposed to other architectures, different cultural norms, and see different ways that people live. All that’s required is that you get to a place outside your comfort zone, where you’ve not been, and is unfamiliar.

Consider another kind of travel. You'll be exposed to other architectures, different cultural norms, and see different ways that people live. All that's required is that you get to a place outside your comfort zone, where you've not… Share on X

In metro Atlanta, this is very easy to do, taking as little as 30 minutes drive outside the Perimeter. There’s great variation according to what direction you go. Head north into the mountains, where you can still see signs of how the mountain people survived as the area grew. Head east, and you can see both the university town of Athens, or if you go south of there, the homes on the antebellum trail that survived Sherman’s march to the sea.

To the south, in the central plains, it’s agrarian society, and old-south government. Milledgeville was once our state capital. It’s also home to the now-abandoned Central State Hospital, at one time one of the largest insane asylums in the United States.

To the west, you have the industrial city of Dalton, and Rome, with a large collection of Victorian architecture, and the old Civil War POW camp in Andersonville.

My point? You don’t have to travel far to get access to unfamiliar civilizations. Think about all that’s around you, and an hour or two away. Experience all the world has to offer.

And if you’re in Conyers, make sure to get a slice of carrot cake at Awake. You won’t regret it.