Navigating the familiar

My mother and I often spend time arguing about the importance of traveling.

I sit traveling as an opportunity to open your eyes to new experiences and reach into different aspects as your soul.

My mother sees travelling as a frivolous waste of time that masks personal entertainment under the guise of "cultural experiences."

While my initial reaction is to disagree with my mother - "you just don't understand," I tell her adamantly, "You grew up in a different world." I've grown up in the age of globalization, cheap trans-Atlantic flights and with a much richer palet that is well versed in the world's rainbow of culinary treats. I grew up in an age when many students post-poned their first year of university to take off around the world on a personal mission to find themselves in Europe, or try to gain a deeper understanding of the ills of the western world by visiting Africa. For my generation, it is almost expected that at some point in your 20s, you will embark on a voyage that will take you to the other side of the earth and back. Traveling has practically become a resume requirement, as more and more businesses and organizations are seeking out those youth who understand how the globalized world works and who have a deeper respect for the values of diversity and multiculturalism.

I myself am tempted by these arguments. I plan to take off in the next year or so to have my own array of cultural experiences, but as much as I love to argue with my mother, their is also an element of truth to her argument that I cannot deny.

As more and more young people set their sights on leaving Canada to fix the ills of the world, there seems to be a growing disconnect with one's own city, or country for that matter. While people my age love to brag about their knowledge of the unfortunate in Africa, ask them a question or two about the travesties facing their own city and they are likely to have a response. As more and more young people turn their attention towards fixing the developing world (and not to say its not in good conscience), I can't help but wonder - who is left behind to critique the practices of the governments here in Canada? Who is here to take initiative on the issues of poverty and homelessness in Calgary?

This is one question I have asked myself in the past, and one that I also use to keep me in check with reality as I dream about fixing all of the world's problems.

I'm not sure why it is that young people have such a desire to turn their altruistic efforts towards another country, but perhaps this desire has something to do with growing up in a globalized world, one where we have always had access to the world's problems through television, but more importantly through the internet.

The benefits of living in a globalized world also has it downside - for not only have we grown up in the age of McDonalization, but we have also grown up to the tune of sweat shops, child labour and now an increasingly hostile sector of the world that seems to think the west is to blame for all the ills on the planet. Perhaps our desire to flee the comfort of the western world has something to do with the sense of guilt that lays stuffed into all the conveniences of modernity that we tend to enjoy.

While this theory (and yes, that is all this is, a whimsical theory from one of those confused young people whose sense of duty is divided across the planet) may hold some truth, I think that its important for young Canadians to realize that it is not everyone's duty to find their calling in a land five timezones away. Instead, if we just remember to look around, to recognize the plight of our fellow citizens, there are also plenty of opportunities to make Canadian cities better places to live.

And, improving the quality of our cities doesn't simply amount to feeding the poor. It also includes the duty we all have to enjoy the spaces we exist in and the people we interact with.

So, the next time I am day dreaming about the endless possibilities that are waiting for me across the sea I'm going to stop and think of all the endless possibilities that lie waiting within the city around me.

You never know what you might learn when you meet a stranger on the street. No matter where you are in the world.