Have List, Will Travel

"One day you will wake up and there won't be any more time to do the things you've always wanted .  Do it now."

Paulo Coelho

"Traveling.  It leaves you speechless, then turns you into a story teller."

Ibn Battuta

I want my life to be more than just long

Some people are happy to spend their lives doing ordinary things.  They have their family and their homes and their routines and they go about living their lives doing the same things everyday.  And if they are happy doing that, then that is great.  I also have my family and a home, and I love my life, I wouldn't change it for anything.  But part of that life is the fact that I can't just spend my life doing ordinary things all the time.  I get restless.

I have had that restless streak in me my whole life.  I don't know why.  What made me this way?  It probably has something to do with my childhood, which was a fairly average childhood in a small town.  I had loving parents and siblings, and it was very average.  But I was in a small town, and I knew there was a big wide world out there.  And from a young age I yearned to see more of it.

I loved going into the city, which for me was Portland.  It was the closest big city to us, and my grandmother lived there.  There was so much more to do and see there.  I went as often as I possibly could, even managing to live there with my grandmother during my high school summers.

But Portland, though better than the small town, was not that exciting.  There was still a huge world that I desperately wanted to explore.  I dreamed of traveling the world.  For a long time that was just a dream.  I went to college for a couple of years.  Met a man, fell in love, got married and had a child.  So travel wasn't that easy.  We were young, and just getting by financially, with a young child to raise.

My husband was in the navy, so that did help some.  He got stationed in San Diego, and then on the east coast for awhile, and then back to San Diego.  So I got to see a few new places.  I met a lot of young navy wives who were not happy about moving around so often.  They didn't like being so far from their families, etc.  But I always looked forward to where our next duty station would be, and hoped it would be someplace exotic.  But for many years we stayed stateside.

Finally, we got stationed in the Philippines.  I was so happy, we were finally going to a foreign country.  It was the great adventure. I loved being in the Philippines.  It was so different from the states.  I loved roaming the markets early in the morning.  We purchased a car, and I would go exploring the local areas.  We took trips into Manila and Bagio and to Pagsanjan Falls. 

We also were able to take trips to some nearby locations.  Our daughter was on the base swim team and they competed against the Hong Kong team.  I was able to go along on the trip.  George couldn't go, he had to work  But I went along to watch the swim mete and then Kim and I stayed on for 5 nights after everyone else left, and we explored Hong Kong together.  I felt I was finally seeing the world.

From that trip my hunger grew.  I booked a trip to Singapore and Thailand for the 3 of us.  Then I took Kim out of school and she and I caught a navy flight to Japan.  We spent 10 days over there, mostly in Tokyo, but a few days in a small town by the navy base, waiting for a flight back,  We were on standby for 4 days, but between waiting for flights we were able to do a little exploring.

While in the Philippines we also took a trip to Taiwan - all 3 of us.  And we all went back to Hong Kong two more times.  I loved Hong Kong.  It was a quick plane trip, and so much to see and do.  It is a city I could have lived in.  I felt safe there, even walking around the streets at midnight.  So many people out and about all night, it felt as safe as during the day.

But for many years after coming back from the Philippines, we were unable to travel outside the country.  We were both working, and we did not have the money to travel.  My husband was still in the navy, and he got sent places for work, but I was unable to go with him.  I was envious when he went to Australia, Sri Lanka and even Okinawa.  Places I longed to see.

I lived an ordinary life, like so many.  Going to work, coming home, making dinner, cleaning the house and reading about places in the world that I wondered if I would ever see.  I wasn't unhappy, but I did long for more sometimes.

I'm reminded of the play Pippin.  In the play the character of Pippin is always looking for more.  He doesn't want to live an "Ordinary Life".  He felt he was destined for more. In the song "Corner of the Sky"  Pippin sings - "Don't you see I want my life to be something more than long.... Rivers belong where they can ramble... Eagles belong where they can fly... I've got to be where my spirit can run free... Got to find my corner of the sky."  But then at the end he discovers that the ordinary things are enough, and he finds happiness in love and just being an ordinary man. But as much as I love my ordinary life and my family, there is a part of me that has always yearned for an occasional adventure.  A chance to explore, a change in venue.  And so now that we are retired and have the financial means to do it, I have been exploring as much as I possibly can.

I find that as I get older I want to go more often.  I fear that old age will catch me before I see all the wonderful places in the world that I have yearned to see.  And I find my self wanting to do more challenging things.  Like in Costa Rica, I went ziplining, and then found myself climbing a tower and doing the Tarzan swing, by jumping off that tower.  I want to try more adventurous things, although I know that I have to be careful.  I have had knee replacement surgery and there are some things I just shouldn't do if I want to keep on traveling.  But I don't want to just watch, I want to participate in life.  I want to push a little and get out of my comfort zone and try new things.  I want my life to be a little exciting, and more than just long.

Our next adventure is Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, in the spring of 2017.  And I am looking forward to the adventure.



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