Remembering For A Lifetime

If I asked for a show of hands from those who keep a journal it would probably be pretty sparse.  Some who blog may be able to consider that because of the personal and factual basis for their blog.  How many fewer hands would go up if I specified the journaling to be about a trip or vacation?  I previously mentioned the idea of journaling in conjunction with the ability to effectively be impressed by the cultures and different lifestyles of the world without falling into the ways of the world.

Throughout my lifetime I have found journaling to be a way to explore all of the thoughts running through my mind—to sort them out and try to make sense of them, as well as to serve as a method of remembrance.   This is the case with journaling on a vacation as well.  When we go on vacation our minds let go as we relax and let the busyness of life slip from our thoughts but how often do you wish you could remember the places you visited and all of the funny stories or people you met?  Journaling is a piece of remembering those things, photographs being the other major source which I’ll talk about another time.

Line Dancing in Hanoi, Vietnam

My journals from my trips help me to place locations/buildings from photographs—an added bonus to writing it down—you’ll know what all of your pictures are of.  I’ve also been able to see how the events of my vacations have changed me.  I came back from my summer teaching English in Vietnam a much changed person, just ask my best friends from college.  It was a tough time for me to work through those changes.  Having my journals, I am able to look back at my time there, weaving construction paper baskets for an Easter egg hunt or working with my students on the skit they chose to do and teaching them the Electric Slide to Billy Ray Cyrus’ Achy Breaky Heart.  J One of the entries that I rarely need to look at to remember was the last one about saying a sad good-bye to my students who came to the airport to see us off.  It was heartbreaking for all of us as we hugged and cried-recognizing the importance of that last moment together realizing we didn’t know when or if we would see each other again.  Those sad memories can be brightened by turning back a few pages to the last day I spent with my students-a Saturday where they took me to some of their favorite places around the city of Hanoi shopping, eating, and sharing in one another’s company as we explored together.  I got to experience the city and its amazing people through the eyes of teenagers willing to befriend a blonde-haired Midwestern girl only a couple of years older than themselves.

Exploring with Students in Hanoi, Vietnam

You might be able to tell how difficult it is to refrain from becoming engrossed in the past from what I’ve written already.  Journaling allows you to go back and explore the events of your trip retrospectively.  Hindsight can open our eyes a little more clearly to the events of our trip and how/why they happened the way they did.  Don’t be afraid to go back to those memories whether good or bad, happy or sad.  We can better recognize the events that influenced ourselves and how they effected change in our lives when we see the events written out as they happened.  If you want to make the most of a vacation or trip, give it the respect it deserves and keep a journal even if it only highlights the main events of your days. You’ll be amazed what you discover about yourself and how you view the world by what you record about your time.  Remember though, that journaling doesn’t have to all be serious but can allow you to relive the funny jokes you heard from the family camping next to your or the silly/embarrassing things that happened like trying to practice your speaking skills in a foreign language only to discover you switched your words and ended up saying something about the other person’s mother.  You live and learn-why not do it through keeping a journal?  I highly recommend it.  Just try it once and you’ll never stop…even if you want to.  J

Raring to Go

If you’re any bit as restless as me, you likely have travel on your mind all of the time.  As I’ve passed some of the young age “landmarks”-turning eighteen, moving away to college, becoming a college graduate, and entering the job market-I’ve struggled with this at an increasing rate.  Taking one trip only seems to fuel the need for another.  The search for the next location and a reason I can pass off as logical for making the trip begins almost immediately.

Neuschwanstein Castle-Germany

My desire for international travel began at a young age when at thirteen I took a three week tour of Europe with a group from our small community in connection  with EF Educational Tours.  I spent months convincing my parents it was worth using my entire savings account to go.  To this day I stand by that decision.  It was on this trip that my independence began to take shape.  I went on the trip knowing four people-the leader who was a teacher at the middle school and his son who was a classmate of mine, one of the boys who was a friend of my brother’s, and one of the girls who was also a classmate of mine.  I didn’t know any of them very well nor the others to any extent and thus spent most of my time on my own whenever it was possible.  I enjoyed my fries and sweet mayonnaise discovery in the streets of The Netherlands and Belgium, exploring the magnificent lace shops in Brugge, all the chocolate one can fathom in Salzburg, and the myriad book shops of London.  The power and majesty of Ludwig II’s Neuschwanstein and his grandfather Maximilian’s Hohenschwangau in Germany are in their own category.  I can still remember the contrast of the yellow stone walls of Hohenschwangau against the brilliant blue clear skies.  Those three weeks allowed me to experience the countries of The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Lichtenstein, Austria, Switzerland, and England.  In the ten years since that trip in the spring/early summer of 2000, I’ve had the chance to revisit most of those countries-experiencing some of the same cities and adding to the list with some new ones, too.

Hohenschwangau Castle-Germany

It’s hard to look back at that trip without a little bit of nostalgia because of the changes I experienced at that time.  When you take a trip that evokes emotion or some decision-making I think it is worth reflecting on—just don’t let yourself dwell on them and become your bar for all trips to equal or surpass.  No two trips can ever be compared nor should they.  Trips are made at different times in life and under different circumstances, so even if you go to the same places with the same people you are apt to notice different things.  Enjoy all of it and allow yourself to be led and influenced by what you experience-in moderation.  I’m definitely NOT saying we need to become the world around us-there is too much negativity and evil in the world to do that, but if we don’t allow ourselves to be impressed by the world we have just tipped the scale too far in the opposite direction.  Not sure how to effectively and efficiently allow this to take place?  I’ll leave you with a couple suggestions for the day:  Journal and Photograph.  They each deserve their own entry-at least!  J