After I finished high school I went to Hong Kong and Thailand

"After I finished high school I went to Hong Kong and Thailand and spent some time there. Just to get that whole experience of being out of the bubble that I was in from high school in Vancouver, to be able to travel around and be on your own was an amazing experience." Thus spoke Shay Mitchell, and in her words resounds the eternal truth of youth stepping beyond the walls of familiarity into the vastness of the world. For every heart begins life within a bubble, a small circle of habit, family, and schooling. Yet the soul hungers for more—to cross seas, to test itself in foreign lands, to feel the wonder of being alone under strange skies. This is not merely travel, but initiation into independence.

The ancients too knew this rite of passage. Did not Alexander, still young, leave Macedonia to conquer lands beyond imagination? Did not Siddhartha Gautama walk beyond the palace walls and there encounter suffering, wisdom, and the path to enlightenment? To leave the bubble is to step into the mystery of life itself, where safety ends and discovery begins. Shay Mitchell’s words are modern, yet their spirit belongs to all ages: the yearning to break away from the narrow life of childhood and to awaken to the breadth of the earth.

Her journey to Hong Kong and Thailand was more than leisure—it was encounter. In foreign lands one sees new faces, new foods, new ways of living. Suddenly, the customs one assumed were universal prove to be only local. The bubble shatters, and the mind expands. This is the gift of travel: not only to behold new places, but to behold oneself in a new light, stripped of familiar anchors, forced to grow stronger, wiser, and freer.

History provides vivid mirrors of this truth. Think of Marco Polo, who left the comfort of Venice as a youth and journeyed to the court of Kublai Khan, discovering marvels unknown to his homeland. His life was transformed, not only by what he saw, but by who he became—a bridge between East and West. Or recall the Grand Tours of Europe, when young nobles were sent abroad to learn culture, art, and philosophy, so they might return home not merely well-born, but well-formed. These journeys, like Shay Mitchell’s, remind us that stepping into the unknown is the furnace where maturity is forged.

Children of tomorrow, learn this: if you remain always in the bubble, your spirit will never stretch its wings. Growth comes when you place yourself in unfamiliar soil, when you are tested by strangeness and carried by your own strength. To be on your own is frightening, yet it is also liberating. For when you return from such journeys, you are no longer the same—you have become larger, richer, and more alive.

Practical wisdom lies close at hand. Seek moments when you can step beyond the comfort of your own walls. If you cannot cross oceans, cross the boundaries of habit. Read voices from faraway lands, speak with strangers, walk in places unfamiliar. If you can, travel, not as a tourist shielded by luxury, but as a wanderer willing to learn. Do not fear solitude in foreign places, for solitude is the teacher that reveals your hidden strength.

Thus the lesson is plain: to leave the bubble is to awaken. Shay Mitchell’s journey to Hong Kong and Thailand was not only about distance, but about transformation. She tasted the freedom of being on her own, and in doing so, she stepped into the ancient path of those who seek to know the world and themselves. Let us, then, follow her example. Let us dare to leave our bubbles, to wander, to risk, and to grow—so that when we return, we are not who we were, but who we were meant to become.