Agreed - but I would urge even more wandering afield: go to the rest of the world and meet people there. Go to allies and adversaries (carefully) and see how they live, how they think and then come back.
I have had the good fortune to have spent a career traveling to most of the countries of the world (and occasionally fighting there) and those of us who have done that know much better what the other folks are like, how they live, and how great our country really is.
I endorse your call to travel.
My international travels were not far-flung. Nonetheless, they WERE eye-opening. Furthermore, since my travels were chiefly business-related I got a massive cross-section of faiths, cultures, and races. Even in London, I saw protests like I NEVER saw in America. Indeed, I found that drunk Europeans when in Europe REALLY open up after a few cocktails - more so than when drunk in NYC - and could scare a klansman.
Perhaps the BIGGEST lesson I learned when traveling abroad, is how special is America. I loved my travels, but coming back to Newark or JFK made me appreciate America, warts and all. Ironicially, that sentiment was expressed recently to me by (legal) immigrants who, concurrently, also expressed concern for what they saw in election 2020.
But they haven’t left, and neither will I.