Experience the world YOUR way
“Once in a while it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told to.” – Alan Keightley
My first time on a plane was in the fifth grade. I flew to Dallas, Texas with my elementary school. I don’t recall much about the trip or the specific purpose, but I do remember how unfamiliar I was with traveling.
Growing up in Milwaukee, I had never been further than Illinois to visit family and certainly had never stayed in a hotel.
I am laughing writing this just thinking about how I packed multiple bath and face towels for the trip. No clue, okay!
I would not travel by plane again until I graduated high school and went on my first boat cruise to the Bahamas.
I remember that my Mamma worked so hard and saved up all year, paying the trip off in installment payments.
From there, I was fortunate enough to begin traveling again in my adult life, using refund checks for trips in college and law school (don’t judge me!) and then again after starting my career at my previous law firm.
Most recently, I spent time in Cancun, Mexico for my younger sister's birthday and it got me to thinking about how I view travel.
I have always seen travel as an opportunity for mindfulness, new experiences, new food, a time for deep, intimate self reflection, and ultimately a chance to grow closer to God through experiencing His beautiful creations.
My absolute favorite thing (besides eating until I can’t anymore) has become journalling in a new place.
But, I must admit that in the past I have let people and, more recently social media, influence my simple travel values.
Subconsciously, I ingested unwritten rules about which locations are “overdone,” not exotic, exclusive, or “instagram-able” enough (which is WILD given that I barely post to social media. The brainwashing of it all!).
Guess what? We are breaking free from that mess, too!
While I was in Cancun, I realized that it wasn’t the water, the passport stamp or the beautiful resort that made the trip for me.
That all was great, but it was that I got to experience all that beauty with people I love and share goals and dreams together that made it an amazing trip.
It was the deep love and gratitude I felt when I looked at my sister’s smiling face bursting with excitement that we were there celebrating her life.
It was the fact that two of my sisters and my husband got to spend uninterrupted quality time together that we wouldn’t have otherwise.
I want to encourage someone that we don’t have to experience the world in the way that we’ve been told.
Listen, I know that we’ve been fed messaging about luxury and live in a society obsessed with exclusivity and committed to elitism.
But, despite what social media tells us, every travel experience doesn’t have to be 5-star to be memorable and filled with love. A new experience for someone may be going to a new neighborhood in their city. A bus trip to a bordering state. A train ride to a concert.
As the old saying goes, this life is what we make it.
We can do it according to “likes” and others’ opinions, or we can tap into our truest selves —that self that is closest to the Holy Spirit living within us — and experience the lives God has called for each of us.
Know that if we continue to live based on what people deem acceptable, we run the risk of actually missing the world we want to experience so badly.
I don’t know about you Chain Breaker, but with all that is going on in society today, the risk is not worth the reward for me!
So, take that bus, train, or road trip.
Stop going to the beach when you hate sand!
Hike up that mountain and go to that neighborhood you’ve never been to.
But, more importantly, spend time learning who you are and what you truly enjoy apart from the opinions of strangers.
Your soul will thank you.
That’s it from me y’all!
And you know the deal, we can’t finish without gratitude.
So, today, I am grateful that God is bringing me closer to the woman that He created me to be.
What are you grateful for today?
Freely,
Latiera
