A Note from Abroad

As I write this article, I’m sitting in a hotel café south of the Equator experiencing new tastes, surrounded by people speaking a different language than my native tongue. Instead of fearing the unknown, I am excited to discover what my eyes have not yet seen. Today, I will tour the city with help from a local guide. I will experience the culture of a society new to me, and I will remember these moments for the rest of my life.

Inside the executive mansion, Casa Rosada, of the President of Argentina. Located in Buenos Aires.

Dog sledding in Banff, Alberta, Canada.

Why do I have a passion to travel? It opens my mind to new possibilities and a different way of looking at the world. Maybe I’ll see a piece of art in a museum, or hear a musical composition at the orchestra tonight that will inspire me. I know with each trip I take that I will bring a little piece of the location home in my heart.

My family loved visiting DisneySea in Tokyo, Japan.

I enjoy the ideas I bring home from my travels. Incorporating some of the new thoughts, and customs enrich my family’s daily lives. For years I’ve tried to develop a taste for tea, but never truly started enjoying it until after our trip to Japan. Now, it is something that has added a new joy to my life.

Climbing aboard President Kennedy's Air Force One.

The world has so much more to offer than what we see in our day to day living. It’s why people take vacations to tropical locations during the winter months. When we can’t be at the beach locally, we can travel to find the experience we desire somewhere else. Want to stay overnight in a castle? You can do that. Do climbing Mayan ruins excite your soul? Then what’s stopping you?

Monet's murals at Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris, France

When you realize that the possibilities are endless for travel, the world opens up to you. If there’s something you’ve been itching to do, why not make it happen? There’s a satisfaction that comes from following your travel dreams that can’t be achieved through other means. I love watching travel shows and researching places I’d like to go, but actually going to the destinations brings a much richer experience of the location.

Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery in Washington DC.

What I’ve found about travel is that it causes me to appreciate my daily living more fully. I love visiting mountains, but the flatlands of North Dakota will always be home to me. On the last leg of trips, when the plane is flying over the prairie lands that I’ve known my whole life, I breathe a sigh of contentment. I know I will treasure my new memories, but I have taken home with me a new appreciation for where I live.

Winter trip to San Diego, California.

I hope that you will find this contentment as well after a trip well traveled!