> I was lucky to settle down, go back to school, and find a passion in programming and science which drives me toward working on bigger problems than myself, that might help humanity in some way

This is exactly why everyone should travel. The thing that you find out is that the rest of the world isn't so different from wherever you're from. Perhaps the colors and shapes of the architecture and food is different, but people are pretty much people. There are some cultural differences that are helpful to learn too, but learning that the world is big and also that it isn't is extremely valuable.

My lessons from traveling (I still like doing it though): You cannot run away from yourself, taking pictures of things doesn't make you more interesting, people like to party, people are mostly good, you get to decide what matters