Adventure Is calling

 If could give one piece of valuable advice to my three children in this life...Travel.  Travel far and travel wide, exclude nothing.  Experience as many new cultures as possible, meet new people, eat the food,  and push yourselves as far out of the zone of comfort as humanly possible, its there and only there that you begin to live and feel the pulse of the world around you.  

I see my children as having more of a jump on external experiences than I did growing up.  My brother and I had a great childhood and upbringing at that, we always had what we needed, went on yearly summer vacations which were awesome and we built lasting memories.  There was Vermont on a lake and playing on Mt. Pico, Hershey Park, Disney, and these were all fantastic, but very generic.  Its not the fault of my folks, they created fun, its what they knew and there's nothing wrong with it.. everyone at that time did this, its what we as a culture knew.  I at the time, knew only of the world I saw in history books attending school, my view was narrow and close minded, I was never really exposed.   Hearing from others about their vacations here there and everywhere were all pretty basic, with the exception of one or two more well off kids whose parents had taken them to Europe to ski or the Bahamas over Christmas break.

My awakening happened at the age of 20 when my realization of just how vast the world really is came to me while serving this country...15 countries and four years later, including two three week long passages across the Indian Ocean, travel left its indelible mark on my soul.  

Its hard to put into writing just exactly how being so far removed from what you know, what you understand, what's familiar, or the feeling you get when you long for a cultural injection, its like a drug.  It's almost as if you need different sounds, smells, tastes...you crave it.  Now I'm not talking resort "vacations" eating the same crappy food you can get at home. Sure you went to the DR, but did you go out in town and mix with the locals?   I suppose folks have their own ideas as to how they would want to spend the one week of time off they have and quite possibly not want to think about what to do, and want to be catered to (all inclusive), and that's fine.  I for one, like the element of surprise, the unknown, this where the adventure starts, and keeps going, fueling the next.  

The ultimate point to my pencil here is, I am and will instill into my children the value of seeking their inner fire to travel and explore the world around them and to not live a "safe life" in a bubble following the herd.  After all travel is the only thing will make you richer....

"Hey kids ssshh....listen, can you hear that?'

'Adventure is calling'