Most of travel relationships are transient, but the connections are still important. I had a heap of meaningful convos that proved the importance of human connection, especially those that were formed by chance encounters. I had a meaningful talk about traveling and life choices with a mid-aged, well-traveled, experienced Italian. I had a deep convo with a Malaysian widow about what she faced in her religion getting married with a foreign man whose age was 19 years different. I had long convos about finding self-happiness, raising a human, building a home with a Swiss who left his home country for Indonesia believing that this was where he really belonged to. I listened to struggles a man had gone thru when deciding to move half way around the world away from family all by himself, starting a new life from the scratch saying that Australia was how good life was supposed to be. I had a late night talk about self-becoming and love with a young man who owns an unshakable heart for love - all of which remind me that people have lived through different experiences, and I should be grateful for my own. Transient relationships don’t often earn good credits, but I truly believe these are the ones in which we learn about ourselves - our values, our strengths, our weaknesses, our happiness, our grief - and how we relate to others, thus teaching us how to appreciate, and bettering us for the more permanent relationships we have.