The Importance of the Travel “Debrief”
At RISE Travel Institute, we believe travel can be transformational. One of the reasons for this is because travel forces us to come face-to-face with cultural experiences that make us uncomfortable. In fact, being uncomfortable is an essential part of positive transformation and can lead to some of the absolute best travel memories. On the RISE Traveler podcast, Amy Hager unpacked this concept in her conversation with the longtime traveler, law professor, and RISE Board Member, Steve Hesse. Steve discussed how he approaches the uncomfortable but unforgettable moments of travel with his students.
After graduating from university, Steve set off with a backpack and traveled the world. He worked and traveled in the United Kingdom, Europe, India, Indonesia, Australia, and Japan. Today, he has made a home in Japan where he works as a Law Professor at Chuo University in Tokyo. He’s no stranger to the transformative nature of travel, citing his own experiences, among them a breathtaking moment at the Taj Mahal. He’s also experienced cultural misunderstanding and the enlightenment that comes from broadening the mind to make room for a new set of cultural norms.
As a university professor, he often has opportunities to travel with his students (he’s taken students to Africa, as well as Thailand, India, North America and Vietnam) and helps them comprehend their own moments of cultural dissonance. Steve points out, “basically any time we come across or we do something that I can see is creating a little dissonance in their heads I always try to debrief it, so I make notes during the day.”
Steve places importance on “debriefing” during travel, an important part of travel that is too often missed as travelers frequently pack their itineraries to the brim. Instead of rushing from one location to the next, Steve takes time both during the day and at the end of the day to ask his students the following questions:
What have you seen?
What have you learned?
What has troubled you?
What kinds of concerns do you have?
Stopping and taking the time to ask these questions can be the difference between a confusing travel experience and a transformational one. When we debrief, we give ourselves time to process a foreign concept, identify what made us uncomfortable and why, and start to break down any preconceived notions we may have, widening the scope of our thinking to include things new and revealing.
As Steve puts it, “really watching people and their culture and not judging but trying to understand is a wonderful aspect of travel education.”
Naturally, travel can make us uncomfortable. If it doesn’t, we may not be doing it right. On your next trip, embrace the discomfort but also embrace taking the time and energy it requires to truly process those feelings, and be transformed.
About the Author:
Kara King, Digital Content Producer
Kara (she/her/hers) is a traveler and writer who strives to enhance the voices of others. She has developed travel content for Thrillist, Wanderful, and Unearth Women. In addition, she has worked extensively with underprivileged communities, most recently at the Brooklyn-based non-profit, CAMBA, where she managed instructional services and designed holistic programming for young adults, immigrants, and newly arrived refugees. She is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, and holds a degree in Comparative Literature.
Currently, in addition to developing content for RISE Travel Institute, she is using her content creation skills on The Hill’s Events Team, where she crafts virtual event programming and acts as an extension of the newsroom, bringing thought leaders together and important issues to light.
She’s lived in multiple cities including Paris, Berlin, Los Angeles, and New York. But she now calls Washington, D.C home.
