20 November 2008

Why We Travel

Posted by BaBa under: Daily Life; Retrospect; Travel .

  A student asked why I travel as I travel so often. I gave the answer that we travel because we enjoy it. We enjoy seeing new places and exciting new things. This is true, but not the entire truth. We travel when we can because we can. I work hard and have a very full schedule. When I am not working, we play and we play hard. The working hard comes from the work ethic instilled by my father and the dedication to being a professional at what he does. He also taught us that we have to smell the roses.

It is hard to find balance. I do work hard and we play hard. If you look at each individually then things are out of balance. However, when viewed together then they become closer to being balanced. The concept of balance is and illusive one and one that you have to continually keep a vigallence over as it is easy to loose this tenuous concept.
As I just wrote, the answer given to the student was not a full one. We travel because I do not want to end up like George Bailey from my favorite film “It’s a Wonderful Life” as he became frustrated as his dream of traveling world escaped him. There are so many reasons why this is my favorite movie among which is that you learn to appreciate the blessings that you have of family and friends. To this you must follow your dreams.

Sometimes it takes a major event to have you change directions in your life. A lot of people reevaluated things after 9/11/2001. Our event came sooner – 12/0/1999. This is the last day MaMa worked. She went onto becoming retired on disability and we decided to see the world while we can and so we have in the years since traveled to many lands. This event reminded us that you can plan for the future, but not predict it. Sometimes you must balance the future with living in the present.

We focus on today, remember yesterday and plan for tomorrow. This is a saying that provides guidance to us. We have only today. With this in mind, we began to travel as we are not guaranteed tomorrow. A lot of people put off things until retirement, they have more money, the kids are grown, etc. We did not want to miss these experiences by waiting until later and because of health issues or a sharp downturn in the financial market or whatever and then miss out on achieving our dreams. Memories of these trips are something that no one can take away from us like our education.

So we travel when we can and enjoy the memories. Sometimes these experiences change our lives and thus we would not miss them for the world. One of these experiences brought us from a couple to a trio of travelers. I for one would not miss seeing the world with either of them and experiencing the wonder he sees in so many new things.

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