What follows are the seven biggest lessons I’ve learned after seeing much of our planet up close. Maybe they can help along your own journey, wherever it may lead you.

1. The world is far safer than headlines suggest.

Before traveling, you imagine danger lurking around every unfamiliar corner. After traveling, you realize most of the world is made of people who want to help, not harm. In cities of millions or tiny roadside villages, strangers consistently steer you in the right direction, warn you about scams, or simply ask how your journey is going. Fear shrinks as firsthand experience grows, and the version of Earth shown on the nightly news feels increasingly out of sync with the one you meet in real life.

2. Hospitality is often strongest in places with the least to give.

This one is counterintuitive. The lowest GDP nations often display the highest generosity. People who materially have the least routinely offer the most: a chair, a plate of food, a ride, an introduction, or a genuine, heart-melting welcome. Kindness is not evenly distributed across the globe, but it often flourishes in “poor” places like Africa, Latin America, and Asia. That said, I’ve been the recipient of amazing generosity in America, too, the richest country on Earth. Point is: humans are amazingly charitable, even when you least expect it.

3. People everywhere care about the same things.

Once you zoom out, it is astonishing how universal human priorities are. Family. Dignity. Safety. Meaningful work. Health. Hopes for our children. These desires transcend language, politics, wealth, and geography. What changes is the style of life, not the substance of it. And “rich” and “poor” take on entirely different meanings once you see how abundant community, time, and happiness can be in countries that lack expensive cars or towering skylines.

4. The most difficult countries are the most memorable.

Every traveler knows this truth but tries to forget it when booking flights: the hardest trips are the ones you talk about forever. Japan’s maze-like transit, Brazil’s rhythm, South Africa’s contrasts, India’s intensity. Remote islands that take three flights to reach. Bureaucracy-heavy countries that make getting a visa feel like a spy mission. Even “do not travel” zones, when entered responsibly, can reveal the most profound human encounters. Challenge has a way of deepening experience.

5. Nature is still overwhelmingly wild.

We like to tell ourselves the world is overcrowded and picked over. It’s not. Fly over Africa, and you’ll see emptiness that stretches past the horizon. Sail the Pacific, and you’ll understand just how big blue can feel. Hike through Patagonia, the Australian Outback, or the American West, and you’ll appreciate what scale truly is. For all our roads and crowded cities, Earth remains mostly untouched, primitive, and undeveloped.

6. You can’t outrun your problems.

This is the myth many travelers secretly test. “If I change my surroundings, maybe I’ll change myself.” But travel is no substitute for inner peace. You can be miserable in Bali and joyful in Belgium. You carry your same hopes, wounds, strengths, and blind spots no matter the latitude. Travel can expand your mind but will never heal a broken heart. That only happens from the inside out.

7. Wonder is renewable.

Here’s the extra lesson that kept showing up, continent after continent: wonder never runs out. The world is not a checklist to complete. It is a relationship. You can return to the same city three times and notice something new on the fourth. You can revisit a desert and marvel again at its silence. You can watch another sunset at sea and still get lost in the glow. Curiosity is a renewable resource. And if you nurture it, the world keeps on giving. Get out there, already.

Blake Snow contributes to fancy publications and Fortune 500 companies as a bodacious writer-for-hire and seasoned travel journalist to all seven continents. He lives in Provo, Utah, with his wife, five children, and one ferocious chihuahua.