Journal 4 - Traveling

In my sixteen years I have traveled a lot. Nevada, Arizona, Washington D.C., Texas, Florida, Kansas, Minnesota, and Wisconsin are a few examples. The longest trip that I have taken is to Florida where I spent six nights in Disney World. Vacations and long trips are good and bad. Good because a change in environment can be relaxing as well as a change in schedule can be a nice break from the stressful daily routine at home. Long trips can be bad as being gone from home for so long makes it hard to come home when such a fun time is commencing with family or friends. Also if the vacation is not planned well, the relaxing factor could be thrown out the window if what you thought you were going to go see or visit does not work out. That point could go the other way, depending on the type of person planning the vacation and who goes with them. If the trip is micro planned and every minute has an activity, then the spontaneous fun that comes with vacations.

The personal impact long trips and vacations have on me is knowledge. I always learn something when I go on vacation. I know that sounds weird, but it is true. My family went to Texas and visited the Johnson Space Center and saw a ton of cool NASA paraphernalia. I learned about the Ares Program that was going to send many rovers and eventually people to Mars (which was later scratched due to budget cuts, as I learned when I went to Florida's Kennedy Space Center two years later). Not all of my trips had the original root of knowledge seeking, but I still learn something every time. I have been to Disney World three times (ages 5, 9, 13). I learned something every visit. The first time I became aware of the fact that mermaids can breathe above water (thanks to meeting Ariel herself) and that walking cartoon characters do not speak because its just a person in a suit (Crazy right? What's next, Santa Claus isn't real?). The second trip Space Mountain broke and I saw the roller coaster with the lights on and with people working on it. Seeing the mechanics and technical parts of such a cool ride made me realize that Disney is not all magic, it has some actual people who have to build and fix the rides. The third time I became aware that behind every ride, every strategically placed water fountain or bench, or simply the giddy, youthful, magic feeling that comes with Disney World, was a person or team of people who discussed and executed an idea and implemented it in the park. Trips and vacations always effect me for the better as I come away with more knowledge than what I started out with.