Along with the experiences you have on your travels, your friends are some of the greatest teachers you’ll encounter during your time on this planet. And just like learning, making new friends shouldn’t stop when you leave school.
It’s important to keep making new friends throughout your life if you want to keep growing and experiencing new adventures, thoughts, and feelings. The people you choose to surround yourself with influence everything from your decisions and self-esteem to your happiness and even your weight, in fact, having the right people in your life can have a more uplifting effect than gaining new qualifications or getting a significant pay rise. The same applies to travel buddies. Nurturing a friendship with the right new travel buddy and the rewards can be immense.
Here are just some of the benefits you can look forward to as you start to make new Connections:-
A new friend is an opportunity to listen to new stories and ideas. There is no shared history between you- yet- so here’s a brand new teacher to learn from!
As our interests change it’s important to find people to share them with. Spending quality time with a new friend can open your eyes to new viewpoints, challenging the status quo of your usual group’s thinking.
The life and travel experiences of a new friend can encourage you to visit new places and experience different cultures. An outgoing new friend can embolden you to push your boundaries. They might even encourage you to try new foods while you travel!!l A new friend from a different culture or generation can help you rethink your own subconscious prejudice (we all have them) and prove stereotypes to be false. A pleasantly different new travel buddy can help you be more adventurous, show you a different way of seeing the world, and encouraging you to feel curiosity instead of fear.
According to Paul Saunders, a communication expert who helps people improve their social skills and make friends anywhere, the easiest and most useful people to know are “connectors”. Gregarious, open people with a huge circle of friends, connectors are always looking for new and interesting people to add to their social circles. You probably won’t develop a deep friendship with them, but they are excellent at introducing you to more people.
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