The Sunday Best (06/15/2025)

Why Your Next Trip Might Be Your Best Investment

My keyboard keys click and clack as the beautiful Colombian mountains emerge from their morning shroud, fog retreating before the ascending sun’s golden assault.

Emerald ridges emerge like sleeping giants awakening. The Cordillera Occidental stretches endlessly, each peak a testament to geological violence that carved this landscape millions of years ago. Lake Calima lies below, its surface mirror-smooth, reflecting fragments of sky between dissipating mist tendrils.

Coffee plantations cling to impossible slopes. Terraced fields cascade down mountainsides in perfect geometric patterns, defying gravity and logic. The air tastes thin and sweet, carrying hints of tropical flowers and volcanic soil.

“I felt awake.” That’s how my friend Sunil Pandya, MD, described his recent travels. After decades of 6 AM rounds and weekend calls, that awakening makes perfect sense.

You’ve spent years postponing incredible vacations. Surgery schedules don’t accommodate the Northern Lights or harvest season in Tuscany. Now they can.

Travel rewires your brain. Standing in Machu Picchu or haggling in Marrakech markets creates neural pathways that morning coffee and hospital hallways never will. These experiences become mental assets—memories that compound interest better than any 401k.

Adventure feeds the soul. Sunil knows this viscerally. Breaking from familiar environments satisfies something primal in high-achievers. You’ve conquered medical school, residency, practice building. Mountains and foreign languages present new territories to master.

Travel reveals hidden versions of yourself. The physician who performs life-saving procedures might discover an inner anthropologist in Cambodia or a wine enthusiast in Bordeaux. These discoveries aren’t frivolous—they’re recalibrations of identity beyond the white coat.

Humans are goal-oriented creatures. Planning expeditions activates the same reward circuits that drove you through medical training. Research shows anticipation generates happiness equal to the actual experience. Booking that safari creates months of elevated mood before you even board the plane.

Your medical career demanded sacrifice. Travel represents reclamation. Every passport stamp says you’re choosing experience over routine, growth over comfort. The awakening your colleague described? It’s available to anyone brave enough to book the ticket.

The prescription is simple: go

.

Jorge Sanchez, MD

Lake Calima, Colombia (4,900 feet above sea level)

The Sunday Best (06/15/2025)

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