“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.”
I’ve been saying for the longest time that one of the best ways to spend your money is on travel. It’s one thing to watch documentaries on television, but it’s another thing altogether to immerse yourself in the culture, climate and food of another part of the world. It really helps to refresh your perspective on things, because you get to experience all sorts of things that you wouldn’t be able to experience back home.
And it also reminds you of all the things you take for granted. The longer you stay in a single place, going through the same routine, the more likely you are to neglect and forget what you have around you. This isn’t just about visiting developing countries and suddenly becoming much more grateful for clean running water and a relative sense of safety walking down a dark alley. It’s also about appreciating the space that you have, the friends that you have, and all the amenities that you have available to you.
The quote above was taken from A Hat Full of Sky
And he’s right. Have you ever had that experience when you come back from a long, but enjoyable vacation? When you arrive at your home airport and smell that familiar air? When you yearn to sleep in your own bed again and not some lumpy hotel bed? Sometimes, you forget about what you have until you’ve lost it, even temporarily.
At the same time, as a silly old bear taught us, we also don’t know what we’re missing until we find it. Go out there and find what the world has to offer, then come home and rediscover everything that you already had.
I call it a rut or blinders. I am happy that my job affords me a lot of different problems and experiences that make it very interesting on a daily basis.
That being said, I take an 11 day vacation every February to celebrate my daughters birthday on the 21st. This year we get to start adding my son Alexander’s birthday on the 15th. This year we are spending 4 days at Disney World. We will be staying at the new value resort “Arts and Animation”. It is nice to leave so close to Disney that we can go more often, but it is also nice that we can stay at all the different resorts that make it different each time we go.
Same place different things…. When we get back it is interesting that I actually look forward to resting, and playing with the children.