How Travel Changed My Life

By Harry Alvarez | November 11, 2021

Travel has been a part of my life since at six months old my entire family boarded a flight back to the Dominican Republic. 1980’s New York City was not where my parents envisioned raising their children and they retreated to their home land. Ever since I've had the privilege of calling both these identities mine. I’m both Dominican and American. And yes I'm also Dominican-American. Living in the space between cultures has allowed me to learn from both, and apply it in my everyday life. My brothers and I (and an entire generation) navigated these spaces. Moving back and forth between knocking down mangoes with rocks in our backyard in Santo Domingo and playing handball at the courts of our Bronx neighborhood. 

Having to navigate through different languages, cultures, and daily realities promotes grit, empathy, and a sense of community. These are the lessons that students (young and old) learn when they participate in a homestay, contribute to a community impact project, or take a long drive through new landscapes. It was not until my adult life that I began to call any of those trips to the Dominican Republic travel. It took me going to Costa Rica, and experiencing a new culture for me to realize that the benefits of travel are ingrained in who I am.

I made a career of travel and made a commitment to myself to continue to explore. To push my boundaries. Because it is at the edge of our comfort zone that we learn the most. I’ve learned about the value of community and the benefits of cross cultural collaboration. That diversity makes us stronger because it diversifies the points of view from which we can draw. And that the world is an ever connected place where decisions made on one continent can have a drastic effect on communities across the world. It is only through learning about one another's cultures, customs, and realities that we can create space for us to collaborate, and when we collaborate as a global community the sky’s the limit.