The best education I have ever received was through travel.

Hear, O children of the wide earth, the words of Lisa Ling, who declared with honesty and wonder: “The best education I have ever received was through travel.” In these words lies a wisdom older than books and deeper than classrooms, for she reminds us that the world itself is a teacher, and that every step across its vastness is a lesson in humility, understanding, and truth.

What is travel, if not the breaking of boundaries—the lifting of one’s eyes from familiar walls to behold the strange and the new? To journey is to walk into difference: new faces, new tongues, new customs. And in that difference, the soul is stretched, the heart is enlarged, the mind is awakened. Where books may teach us facts, travel teaches us perspective. Where lectures may tell us about humanity, travel lets us touch its pulse, feel its breath, and share its struggles and joys.

Lisa Ling’s life is itself testimony. As a journalist, she has ventured into war zones, slums, villages, and palaces. She has walked among the oppressed and the powerful, learning not from distance but from presence. Her greatest education did not come from the pages of study but from the dust of the road, the voices of strangers, the tears of the afflicted, and the resilience of survivors. Through travel, she discovered truths that no classroom alone could bestow.

History also bears witness. Consider Ibn Battuta, the great Moroccan traveler of the 14th century, who journeyed across Africa, the Middle East, India, China, and beyond. His travels became a record not just of geography, but of cultures, laws, and faiths. He received an education that no scholar confined to one place could possess, an education of breadth, empathy, and wisdom. Through his eyes, the world itself became a book, and every land a chapter.

There is power in this teaching, for travel is the school of humility. When one leaves the comfort of one’s homeland, one realizes that one’s way is not the only way, one’s truth not the only truth. To sit at the table of another people is to learn respect; to hear their stories is to learn compassion. This is why Ling’s words ring with such force: she understood that education is not merely accumulation of knowledge, but transformation of spirit. And nothing transforms the spirit like walking among the diversity of humanity.

Yet there is also a warning. For travel without openness is wasted. One may roam the globe yet learn nothing, if one carries pride and prejudice as baggage. True education through travel demands humility, curiosity, and a willingness to be changed. It is not about seeing monuments, but about meeting souls. It is not about escaping, but about expanding. It is not about consuming, but about connecting.

Therefore, O seekers of wisdom, take this charge: do not confine your education to schools and books. If you can, walk beyond your borders, even if only to the next village or city. Seek out those unlike yourself. Listen to their songs, taste their food, honor their stories. And if your feet cannot travel far, then let your heart travel through the books, the voices, and the friendships that bring the world closer. For the true spirit of travel is not distance, but discovery.

The final word is this: as Lisa Ling has spoken, so must we remember. Education is not confined to four walls; it is found in the footsteps we take across the earth, in the hands we clasp, in the differences we encounter, and in the love we learn to give. The world is the greatest classroom, and every journey is a lesson. Step into it with humility, and you will find that the greatest teacher of all is life itself.