Literally, just like the title says.. get out of town! Yes, I’m talking about travel! Getting out into the world, experiencing other cultures, trying different food, meeting new people! In my opinion, travel is vital to a happy life! I’m not saying you have to have the money to travel the world in a year (although that would be nice). Sometimes just driving a couple hours will do the trick! You would be surprised at what is in your own state that you have never seen!
I have always had a love for travel, just like photography.. I feel like the two go hand in hand. As a young person, I remember always wanting to be somewhere other than where I actually was. I was born her in east TN, but my parents divorced when I was around 2. I spent a lot of time growing up on the Outer Banks of North Carolina with my sister and our mom. Just about every other member of our family remained here in east Tennessee. So needless to say, when we traveled, it was to Tennessee to visit! I was okay with that, I knew my mom wanted to see her mom and siblings, and my sister and I wanted to see out dad and all our family. But, it would have been nice to go somewhere… anywhere! We did go to south east Virginia often to shop, it was an hour and a half from home and we really didn’t have any retail shops where we lived to get school supplies or clothes, the closest mall was in Chesapeake so we probably went at least once a month to get everything we needed. My first real travel experience was through my high school. I joined a marketing club called DECA, there were competitions held for the students at the local, state and national level. Of course to progress to state, you had to perform well at local, to get to national, you had to preform well at state. Well, I made it all the way to nationals! So, along with a few amazing classmates and our even more amazing teacher, I was headed to California! I was finally going somewhere! This meant, first time on a plane, first time traveling without my family, first time being responsible for myself, with some guidance from my teacher of course. While in the Los Angeles area, a riot broke out, a riot that is now in the history books! The Rodney King riot of 1992.. and we were right there! Maybe not RIGHT there, we were high school kids, so we were safely tucked away in our rooms at the Hilton… but we felt like we were right there!!
Fast forward a few years, i’m out of school, living as an adult. I still love to travel, in fact, I took my mom to the Bahamas one year, and then to Mexico the next. I had friends who also loved to travel, and with some of them, I was able to visit places I had dreamed of, New York City, Atlantic City etc, ect .. I even returned to the Los Angeles area with friends to see and do the things that I couldn’t do before, (not because of the riot.. but because I wasn’t 21!) After visiting California again, and driving through areas where the riot occurred years earlier, it dawned on me… what happened was historical! History, in the making, and I was there! I felt inspired to be a part of more, to see more!
Several more years pass, and now I’m a parent! I want my kids to witness all they can, and have those “historical” moments like I did! So we have always made travel a priority. Our world it constantly changing, what they can see now, may not be here when they are grown! I don’t ever want them in harms way, so I may not wish for them to witness a riot. But, there are other ways for them to be a part of something big. My kids have visited 32 states so far, with more planned for the coming year. They have seen Old Faithful erupt several times, watched a sunset over the Badlands, witnessed wildlife in their natural habitat, hiked in the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon, rock climbed in Zion, rode an air boat through the Everglades, seen the Rockefeller Christmas tree in NYC, Mount Rushmore, Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.. I could keep going on and on! And please don’t think any of these things are out of reach! We are not wealthy people, not even close, so if we can do it, anyone can! We prioritize travel, we save for it! It’s all about putting your money towards what you think is important! The time with our kids, the memories we make… way more valuable than any material object that we could buy! The growth I’ve noticed in my kids because of the things they have seen, is astounding! They have seen how others live, they are not afraid to try new foods or do new things.. travel has given them more confidence to talk to people about the world we live in. While in school, their class will be learning about something amazing, such as the geo thermal pools in Yellowstone, or the Navajo in Monument Valley.. and my kids can say they witnessed those things and met those people first hand.. they were there!! Just like I was back in 1992!
You may be asking, how does this relate to photography. I am a photographer after all, and this is a photography blog on a photographers website! Well, I document all of our travels.. all our adventures, all our memories, through my photos! Those photos are more important to me than all the diamonds in the world. I often sit and look back at pictures of my kids, pictures of my parents… my entire family, and I feel as if we are all still together! The trips with my mom that I mentioned, she passed almost 6 years ago, but I have hundreds of pictures of her beautiful face doing things that made her so happy! The trip to NYC with friends in my early 20’s that I mentioned… I have pictures of the twin towers that were destroyed during the 911 attack. I have pictures of the beach I grew up on from years ago before erosion and storms drastically changed the coast line! When you think about it, a photo is the only way you can make time stand still. I often hear parents say, “I wish I could stop time”, or I hear an older person say, “I wish I could go back”! Well you can, through photos! Take a bunch of photos… put together an album. When you look through that album, you are looking at that time of your life. You stopped it, that exact time.. to the second.. is stopped in that photo for you to keep! As the years pass, continue to look through your albums, every time you do, you are going back in time.. to that moment! You don’t have to wish for it, it’s right there! So please take lots of photos. Take them often, of everything! You never know when a place… or a person.. might only exist in your photos!!