Breaking My Cultural Bubble, National or International Travel?

[Puer Aeternus]

Greetings! 23M here, I've suffered most of my life in complete isolation due to extreme levels of social anxiety and a mild sprinkling of the autism. I've spent the past six months unfucking myself from that, and I've made decent progress to a point where I've gained a lot of confidence and functionality. 

Looking ahead, I've realized I'm rather behind in life. I'm challenging myself to spend the next five years gaining as much life experience as possible, which I will eventually flip and use towards my life purpose. 

I really want to break out of my local bubble in a challenging way. I'm pretty open-minded, but I know there are cultural things that I unconsciously take completely for granted. Watching YouTube videos, reading, and reflecting by myself can only take me so far versus actually traveling and meeting people. But I'm not quite sure how far I need to go before reaching diminishing returns.

The goal is to put myself in situations that break my mind down and gain me perspective/understanding from culture/people very different from myself. Like a poor mans approach to ethnography. I don't really care too much about seeing the sights or going out partying, that's all secondary.

Am in the US, so I've got access to many diverse cultures. Planning on moving to a big city here (Chicago, Philly, etc.) where there will be lots of opportunities and I could travel the country out of my car/camping if I wanted to. My issue is wondering if the overarching presence of US culture and government would reduce the depth of an experience I could have.

Otherwise, I was thinking of about immersing myself in a different country or two for 3-6 months. Trying to meet locals, learning the language, doing what I could away from home. Am considering somewhere in South East Asia or South America. But I'm not sure if it's overkill and I could sufficiently gain the experience I seek without leaving the country. Nor how feasible it would even be to connect with locals/if my expectations are unreasonable.

Thoughts? Welcoming any other suggestions as to how I could pop my bubble too!

Thanks!

 

[caspex]

I have never traveled outside my country so take my advice with a gain of salt. But I believe, and what I want to personally do, is to visit the country and stay there for a good while soaking the culture. I seek the same thing as you in the post and I believe that to truly understand and soak in any culture you need to actually be present there for some time. Visiting a mimic of the actual place would not influence you as much as the real deal. When you physically travel, your mind really says that you are truly in a different country and not some copy of the actual culture. I don't think that it is possible for a copy of the culture inside another, to remain unaffected by the larger country.

Although just traveling inside your country with many different cultures would still open your mind, I see traveling the actual globe as far more superior.

Edited August 11, 2023 by Swarnim