{"id":165,"date":"2026-11-02T09:03:48","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T09:03:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.itaiwancar.com\/blog\/?p=165"},"modified":"2026-11-02T09:03:48","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T09:03:48","slug":"the-best-part-will-not-be-saying-that-i-have-visited-every-country-the-best-part-will-probably-be-all-the-people-memories-and-stories-i-collected-along-the-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itaiwancar.com\/blog\/b\/the-best-part-will-not-be-saying-that-i-have-visited-every-country-the-best-part-will-probably-be-all-the-people-memories-and-stories-i-collected-along-the-way\/","title":{"rendered":"The best part will not be saying that I have visited every country. The best part will probably be all the people, memories, and stories I collected along the way."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of my biggest dreams is that I want to travel to every country in the world, sometimes with my<br \/>\nfamily and sometimes with my friends. I know it will take my whole life, but I really want to experience<br \/>\nas much of the world as I can. I want to see how people live in different places, try food I have never<br \/>\ntasted before, hear languages I do not understand, and experience cultures that are completely different<br \/>\nfrom mine. For me, traveling is not only about taking pictures or visiting famous places. I like the feeling<br \/>\nof discovering something new. Even something very normal for local people can be very interesting to<br \/>\nme.<br \/>\nI grew up in Bali, which is already a place that many people from around the world dream of visiting.<br \/>\nGrowing up there made me used to seeing tourists and people from different countries. Maybe that is<br \/>\none of the reasons why I became curious about the world outside Indonesia.<br \/>\nLater, I had opportunities to travel abroad through university activities and eventually moved to<br \/>\nTaiwan for my studies. Every time I visit another place, I feel like my world becomes a little bigger. At<br \/>\nthe same time, no matter how far I want to travel, there is one place and one group of people that will<br \/>\nalways be the most important to me which is my family. I did not grow up in a wealthy family. There<br \/>\nwas a time when continuing my education was not something I could simply assume would happen. My<br \/>\nfamily&#8217;s financial situation made higher education difficult, and I almost did not continue my studies.<br \/>\nThen I received a scholarship. I still remember how grateful I felt. For some people, going to<br \/>\nuniversity might feel like a normal next step after high school. For me, it felt like someone had given<br \/>\nme an opportunity that could completely change my future. Because of that, I have always felt that my<br \/>\neducation is not only for myself. My parents and family have supported me with whatever they could,<br \/>\neven when they did not have much. I want to build a life where I can take care of them in return.<br \/>\nOne of my biggest motivations for working hard is actually very ordinary. I want my family to live<br \/>\ncomfortably. I want them to worry less about money. I want to be able to take them somewhere they<br \/>\nhave never been before, buy something for them without thinking too much about the price, and give<br \/>\nthem experiences that maybe they never imagined having. I think growing up without having everything<br \/>\nalso made me appreciate opportunities more. When someone helps me, I remember it.<br \/>\nReceiving a scholarship made me think about this a lot. Somebody or some institution decided to<br \/>\ngive me an opportunity when I needed it, even though they did not personally know what my future<br \/>\nwould become. That made me feel that, if I have something I can share with other people, I should try<\/p>\n<p>to share it too. It does not always need to be money. Sometimes it can be time, information,<br \/>\nencouragement, or simply helping someone with something I already know.<br \/>\nAnother thing that is very important to me is friendship. I really love making friends. I feel happier<br \/>\nwhen I have people around me with whom I can talk, share experiences, and try new things. I also enjoy<br \/>\nmeeting people from different backgrounds because everyone has their own stories, perspectives, and<br \/>\nexperiences that I can learn from. I think this is actually one of the reasons why I have always enjoyed<br \/>\njoining organizations and participating in many different activities.<br \/>\nDuring university, I joined student organizations, international programs, competitions, volunteering<br \/>\nactivities, and different projects. Of course, I joined them because I wanted to learn and improve myself,<br \/>\nbut if I am being very honest, another big reason was simply that I liked meeting new people. Every<br \/>\nactivity gave me a new group of friends. Sometimes we only worked together for a short project.<br \/>\nSometimes we became close friends even after the activity ended. I have met people from different<br \/>\nuniversities, different cities, and even different countries because I kept saying yes to opportunities to<br \/>\nparticipate in something new.<br \/>\nFor me, that is one of the best parts. When I look back at an organization or competition, I usually<br \/>\ndo not remember only the result. I remember staying up late preparing something together, being<br \/>\nnervous before a presentation, eating together afterward, joking around during meetings, or talking<br \/>\nabout completely unrelated things while working. Those small moments often become more memorable<br \/>\nto me than the achievement itself. Having friends around me also keeps me motivated. Doing something<br \/>\nalone can sometimes become tiring, especially when things do not go as planned. But when I am<br \/>\nworking toward something together with other people, I feel much more motivated to continue. There<br \/>\nis someone to discuss ideas with, someone to complain to when we are tired, and someone to celebrate<br \/>\nwith when something finally works. I also love being able to share what I experience with my friends.<br \/>\nIf I learn something useful, I want to tell them about it. If I visit a beautiful place, I want them to see it<br \/>\ntoo. If I find an opportunity, sometimes my first thought is whether one of my friends might also be<br \/>\ninterested.<br \/>\nI know that people often talk about being independent and learning how to enjoy life alone. I agree<br \/>\nwith that. I can travel alone, eat alone, study alone, and work independently. But personally, I still feel<br \/>\nthat this world is too beautiful to enjoy completely alone. Seeing an amazing place is wonderful, but<br \/>\nseeing it together with someone you care about creates a different kind of memory. Achieving something<br \/>\nfeels good, but being able to turn around and share that happiness with your family or friends makes it<br \/>\nmuch more meaningful to me.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe that is why I keep joining things. Every new activity gives me a chance to learn something,<br \/>\nchallenge myself, and hopefully achieve something. But it also gives me a chance to meet another person<br \/>\nwhose story might become part of mine. Maybe that is also why traveling means so much to me. I do<br \/>\nnot want to just collect countries on a list. I want to remember the people I met there, the conversations,<br \/>\nthe food, the mistakes, the funny situations, and the people who helped me when I did not know what I<br \/>\nwas doing. And someday, if I am fortunate enough to achieve the things I am working toward now, I<br \/>\nwant to share that life with the people who were there for me before I achieved anything.<br \/>\nI want to take care of my family. I want to keep meeting new friends. I want to help other people<br \/>\nwhen I have the ability to do so. And yes, I still want to visit every country in the world. Maybe one day<br \/>\nI will actually do it. But even if I do, I think the best part will not be saying that I have visited every<br \/>\ncountry. The best part will probably be all the people, memories, and stories I collected along the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of my biggest dreams is that I want to travel to every country in the world, sometimes with my family and sometimes with my friends. I know it will take my whole life, but I really want to experience as much of the world as I can. I want to see how people live [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-b"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itaiwancar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itaiwancar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itaiwancar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itaiwancar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itaiwancar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.itaiwancar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":166,"href":"https:\/\/www.itaiwancar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165\/revisions\/166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itaiwancar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itaiwancar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itaiwancar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}