So as mentioned I went to see the movie "One Week" staring Joshua Jackson (no I am not a huge fan of his from Dawson Days for reference that is as much as I know). I wanted to see the movie because I extremely intrigued by the concept of the movie. For a long time I have questioned mortality and our place on the planet and movies like this one and "The Bucket List" speak to me on a deep level.
I mean I have spent a vast majority of my life trying to get somewhere in my life where I could truly "live" my life instead of being a passenger along for a ride on the train. Now saying that you would think that I have not done much in my life but that isn't really true either. My first large adventure that I remember was when I was 8. My parents took my brother and I to the mountains. We camped and stayed in Banff and Japser. We walked up trails, when horse back riding. Truly the only thing I remember about this trip is a picture of me sitting on top of a large rock pretending it was a horse. I think the picture was taken when we were at Lake Louise.
At the age of 12 I was extremely privileged to spend 6 weeks in Europe meeting my extended family and seeing many things. Much of this trip influenced who I am today. For example, I go to visit the city of Ypres where there is huge monument to the soldiers that died there including many many Canadians. I go to see the trenches that are still left that the soldiers lived in for many weeks. I got to stand in the middle of a cemetery where the military were dead. I remember asking my family about the cemetery and why it was placed in a valley. They told me that it was not a valley is was a partially filled crater from a bomb that had been dropped. I heard stories of the actions that my grandfather and his brothers took against the invading Germans. I saw the fields where the soldiers walked into their town and saw the house in which they hid my great-grand father from the army. The stories and experiences shaped my and changed me in ways I cannot begin to describe. This experience really opened me up to the idea that the only way I can truly change myself and understand the world around me was by visiting places, listening and learning through interactions versus reading about the experiences in books. Even seeing the Mona Lisa and Nepolian's tomb was largely significant for me.
From my early teenage years until I was 18 my parents would take us west every winter, if not more often, to Ski in the Rockies. It was during this time that I started turning away and not recongizing the experiences and opportunities that I was being presented with. I spent much of one trip studying my Physics correspondence course becuase it was SO important for me to take physics along with all of my normal courses at school. I even had the opporutnity to travel to Comox BC to attend Cadet Camp for two summers and spent much of mine focusing on the details rather than the experience.
once I started university it was about finishing my under graduate degree and then my professional degree. I almost stopped traveling exclusively at this point, got married and made the decision to have a my daugther. then something sparked in me and I convinced my husband to take a trip to the Dominican. Again, on this trip I found myself focusing on the uterly unimportant things. However, I did manage to have some of the most amazing adventures on the trip. Snorkeling, taking public transportation (the gua-gua's) with the locals. Since this trip in 2006/2007 I have an unstopable urge to travel.
Since that time I have been to Cayo Coco, Cuba; Varadero, Cuba; Puerto Plata, Dominican, Victoria, BC; San Francisco, CA; New York, NY; Washington, DC. and we will be traveling to the Mayan Riviera in Mexico shortly.
Each of these trips has had different significance.
Our trips to Cuba have been about the culture, the experience and traveling with family. Our trip back to the Dominican was to visit sites that we did not visit the first time. Victoria was to pursue a schooling course that I was immensly interested in. To say that the two courses I took changed my life is an understatement. These courses hit at a deep level and influence who I am and who I practice in my career. While in Victoria the opportunity presented itself to travel to San Francisco presented itself and I ceased it. I was a wonderful opportunity. We did many things, like ride one of the only boardwalks open all year in Santa Clara, showed my daughter the ocean for the first time. It all made me think about how small and insignificant I am in this world and that humbled me. At the end of the trip I go to take the train back to Seattle and then to Vancouver. Again something I have never done and always wanted to do.
Then the movie "Bucket List" came out and it made me think of all of the ideas and places that I had swirling around my head. One of the things I have ALWAYS wanted to do was to visit New York city and to be in Times Square on New Years Eve.
** unfinished**
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