Travel Memories Bring Families Together By Bill Harbin Jr. Creating family memories is the best investment you can make. What is the point of living in a mansion, driving a luxury car, and spending all your life working to get those things with no fun? In reality a middle class family will not retire with a lot of rich people stuff like the mansion. Yet, recollections of even bad things such as broken bones on a ski trip can bring a family closer together. That daughter who came to love you in the hospital while looking at your cast probably did not care if you had a new car. The tragic event brought you closer together.
Our marriage started out with one important picture of us at a luau on our honeymoon in Hawaii. As the years went by more travel pictures started appearing everywhere. Soon there were kids in the pictures. Now the kids have moved out of their rooms, but the pictures and memories are more important than any sum of cash in our portfolio. Even the short trips brought us closer together. The international ones gave the kids a broader education than any school could provide.
After our second cruise I discovered that the price of an 8 by 10 photograph was to be part of my cruise fare each time. Sometimes we men just do not understand things quickly. After about ten years of cruising and looking at pictures around the house the light bulb went off in my head. The pictures are like a time capsule that show the progression of grey hair and more mature bodies as time went along. Now I understand why my wife thought the pictures were more precious than fine jewelry.
My parents used to travel a lot. After departing this world many years ago, my father made sure my mother had a comfortable retirement income. She could probably be rich if they had saved every penny before he died. However, she will talk about their travels that happened thirty years ago with a smile on her face. The stories of flying around the world keep being told. How much money is in the bank account is not as important as the slide projector she likes to watch with us on occasion like an old movie theatre reflecting travel memories on the wall.
Perhaps an evaluation of what is important in life needs to happen with you. With age comes a change of attitude as to what is important. Do not wait until it is too late. The friends and the family need to have fun together now. Education should include more than just studying cultures. A real education will experience them. Continued education will put into practice the good stuff learned from different parts of the world. Even a short trip can open a new adventure to be talked about for years to come. Here is a simple equation to learn. Travel + Family = Memories. You do the math.
