With the new year in full swing, what are your travel resolutions?

With the month of January almost over, this years travel planning is in full swing. I have vowed to make this a year of new adventures. I have consciously downsized, and started to phase out the extra clutter in my life that has been weighing me down the last few years. Sectional sofas, dining sets, spacious digs, you get the drift. We are gearing up for some long term travel and adventures! I am getting my travel spark back! After having a child, you spend the 1st few years of their life trying to protect them from everything. I moved back from Tanzania, to specifically have my daughter back in the safety net of the States. It was always an excuse, “after she is one we will return”, then, “after she grows just a bit bigger”, “to strengthen her immune system”, then pre-school, then kindergarten… “let her finish out the year”…. Now I finally feel she is ready to get out there and see the world! She has been traveling since she was 6 months old, as I used to work for an airline, so she is very familiar with that aspect, but never long term. Airports are like her 2nd home. She has taken trips to the Dominican Republic, and before we moved back to Hawaii, we were flying out here almost every month. We would fly to LA for the day, because I have always had the wandering spirit, even if it is for short jaunts here and there. But after 6 1/2 years of the daily corporate office grind, my kindred spirit is aching to get back out there and see more of the world. Any one who has been bitten by the wanderlust bug, knows the restless feeling. It is like trying to cage an animal, smother the flames of a fire, and deny your own true identity. A little voice in your head says “you must follow the path of society, you have a child now, grow up.” I remember fondly looking back, one day sitting in my Grandma’s living room, she said to me with concern “Sara, when are you going to settle down?” This was after 2 summers spent working in Cancun and Puerto Vallarta, 2 extended bus trips to Mexico (one down the Baja Peninsula and one to Mazatlan), a nanny stint in Miami, San Diego and Germany, and a job offer pending in Guam. I remembering scoffing at the idea. I laughed nervously and I think I said sarcastically NEVER! She was truly concerned for me. Now wanderlust may be a sickness. I don’t know. There is a word called Fernweh which is Literally “farsickness” or “longing for far-off places”, as contrasted with Heimweh (“homesickness, longing for home”). I just don’t know if certain people are programmed to stay in one place too long. I envy those that are just blissfully unaware in their little hometown bubbles, but I grew up in a place with no street light, and I distinctly remember after returning from Mexico for the first time, being depressed to be back in my little town, still recovering for the awe and excitement I had just experienced on my 1st trip abroad. Sometimes I wish, I could be blissfully content to stay in one place, but that is just not me. There is too much to see and do out there, and I am innately aware of my limited time here. I will be turning 40 in a few years and perhaps this is my midlife crisis approaching, but the realization that life is almost 1/2 over (if all goes well) keeps creeping up on me. So this blog is a start of new things to come. A new leaf being turned over and to get back on that travelling saddle! I am so excited to show my daughter the world. I finally feel the time is right. Just like a bird returning to build a nest to hatch their babies, I returned back to my home town to enjoy my pregnancy, back in that same cozy living room of my Grandmother’s home, My Grandma has now long passed, and she never got to meet my beautiful daughter, but her words never left me. I truly don’t know if I will ever be able to fully settle in one place permanently, but like an animal on a migratory path, I always seem to make my rounds around the world, back to familiar cities, friends houses, places, and all who know me by now, know I am never one to stay too long. So to this year of new adventures, let the spark light your flame, if you too are a wandering spirit, who has been denying their true self identity by working in a cubicle, or just going through the motions, hopefully this blog will inspire you to get back out there and see the world.