How Travel Changed My Perspective on Privilege and Opportunity

July 1, 2026 · Panama City, Panama

“None of us choose where we begin, yet that choice shapes almost everything that follows.”

– Jaylon

I never truly understood the depth of these words until I began traveling the world. Growing up, my idea of travel was simply vacations, beaches, resorts, and experiences where everything was catered to you, just like they portray in the movies. Essentially, catered experiences that are designed for comfort and a detachment from your reality. 

Now that version of travel slowly unraveled as I began to experience the world differently, and I’ve been able to let go of that idea and discover what travel really is and what it means to me. More than anything, travel has challenged my perspective. It has allowed me to experience places for myself instead of relying on what I was taught in school or what I saw in the media. Some of those lessons were incomplete; others were simply wrong; others are continuously being formed.

I will admit, there’s something profoundly different about standing in a place, talking with the people who call it home, learning its history from their perspective, and experiencing everyday life firsthand. That’s when you realize that travel isn’t just about seeing new places, but it’s about allowing those places to change you…and once they do, you never really leave them behind. A part of them stays with you, shaping the way you see the world long after you’ve reached your next destination or returned home.

One of the most unexpected lessons travel has taught me has nothing to do with landmarks, food, history, or even culture. Instead, it forced me to confront something I had rarely thought about before: the privilege of where I was born. One thing I’ve found difficult to accept is how much opportunity can come from something as arbitrary as geographical location. I don’t say that to suggest the United States is the best country or that I’ve somehow earned a better position in life than the next person, or even that I’m more deserving than the next person. There are people with stronger passports, stronger currencies, and opportunities I’ll never have, solely because of the cards they were dealt at birth. But there are also countless people who, through no fault of their own, were simply dealt a different hand. Those things quietly shape the trajectory of our lives in ways we often don’t notice until we step outside of them.

The reality is that, simply because of where I was born, the passport I carry, and the strength of the currency I earn, I have access to opportunities that many others don’t. I can visit countries that are far more difficult, or sometimes nearly impossible, for someone else to experience, even if they work just as hard as I do, or harder. For instance, two people can have the same ambition, the same work ethic, and even the same profession, yet the value of what they earn and the freedom their passports provide can lead to completely different lives and opportunities.

That’s a reality I continue to wrestle with, because traveling has made it impossible for me to ignore. Travel has made me incredibly grateful for the opportunities I’ve been given, but it has also made me more aware that many of those opportunities weren’t earned; instead, they were often inherited the moment I was born, before even doing anything on my own. The more of the world I see, the harder it becomes to ignore just how much of our lives can be shaped by circumstances we never had the chance to choose.

Join our travel newsletter for stories and guides from around the world.

Jay

July 1, 2026 · Panama City, Panama