For those of you who don’t know, travelling is one of the best teachers one can ever learn from. It’s not so much about important life lessons slapping you in broad daylight across the face, but rather more about getting a different perspective on things. You get more of a bigger picture on some of the normal, everyday elements of everyday life, such as the fact that you might very well be lucky to be born exactly where you are.

And that’s what travelling does – it makes you see what you have to work with in your own life and gives you a bit of perspective on the potential waiting out there for you, but equally so too, as mentioned, it can open your eyes to just how lucky you are to have things going for you the way they currently are. What I’ve noticed in particular is how the dynamics of local life around the world are largely shaped by one major event in history, with the unique elements of that locale added to and further developed by the unique set of local circumstances found in that area.

This applies even to mere towns which are situated within the same city or state boundaries, and you’ll be shocked to find that it even applies across boundaries which may otherwise seem insignificant. For example, in one Southeast Asian country I visited for all of three weeks, I noticed how fresh fish is cheaper across the railway line which I guess officially divides the east and west sides of the same town.

I don’t know if this is by design or if it’s a psychological thing, but I was rather intrigued by it so I decided to ask some of the locals who came to buy at the more expensive market why they didn’t just cross the railway line to get the fresh fish cheaper. Assuming any fresh fish vendor from this undisclosed market actually knows exactly which one I’m talking about, I apologise – it really wasn’t and isn’t my intention to take any business away from you.

Either way, you’ll be happy about the answer, which is that the locals who tend to buy at the more expensive market just don’t know about the less expensive one across the railway track. It’s mostly locals who actually roll into town from other surrounding regions and so they don’t quite know that the same goods they buy are cheaper across the railway line.

So this points to something as simple as a railway line acting as a psychological barrier, which can really represent a defining boundary for anything – the behaviour of a certain group of people collectively, their political views and even local state law interpretation. A Portland truck accident attorney for example is perhaps able to offer free consultation for their professional services whereas one from across the state border can’t due to local state laws.

Either way, at the end of the day it’s quite interesting to learn of how factors such as one’s environment and even geographic location can really affect their behaviour, their economic prospects and ultimately their quality of life.