Day 346 The Perfect Mom Project

When I was a young girl, my mom and I did not do very much traveling. I remember a trip to Florida when I was about seven. My Mom must not have been aware of sunscreen, (or perhaps it just was not as available back then) since I was burnt so badly that I had huge water filled blisters on my shoulders. To this day I can still remember the pain from that burn. Other than that trip, I know we (My Mom's boyfriend at the time drove) drove out to Colorado to visit my Aunt Ellie and my cousins. I even remember the big up roar, because gas prices had soared to $.75 a gallon. That memory alone makes me laugh now as we travel and get excited at $2.75 a gallon for gas. I know that my Grandparents took me to visit my Great Grandma in Washington DC when I was around 5 or 6, and there is a possibility we did that more than once. I remember asking my Grandma on the plane once "Where is our car, do they put it on the plane?" I remember her telling me they did, and being very concerned when we got to Washington DC and we had the wrong car. I felt like all the adults were not realizing that someone had taken their car and I was very upset.

 The remainder of my travel was through the program I was in at the age of 14 starting in New York in April of 1974 until sometime in 1980. I lived in New York for a year and then in Salt Lake City, Utah the remainder of the time. I hold tight to those memories, because it was my rebirth. That time away from my Mom helped me become the person I am today. It was my metamorphosis.

 When Ashleigh was little, we did local traveling, to visit friends in our state and that type of thing. Once when she was about 5, we flew to visit a friend in Chicago and then my dear friend drove us home. As a single Mom, I had spent a lot of money just for Ashleigh to have the experience of flying on a plane and I was excited we could do that. We really did not do too much big traveling until I married Mark, and that is when we started camping and doing a lot of driving trips, including the many trips to New Orleans once my parents moved there in September of 1994. We are a very fortunate family that we are able to go so many places and see so many things. I am very happy to give these experiences to my children, I know these are memories that they will have for a life time.

 I want so much to help my children be well rounded people and appreciate what they have, but honestly I know from my own experience that they will not even understand a small portion of their good fortune until they are out in the world on their own. I know that as I talk to Ashleigh now she has an appreciation for her younger life, and she sometimes becomes annoyed that her sisters do not understand how lucky they are, since their lives are so much different than even Ashleigh's was. I guess this lesson is mine to own and theirs to discover themselves, that life will hand you opportunity, it is when you take it and what you do with it that is up to you. Perhaps someday they will be talking with a friend or writing a blog and realize that sometimes even the smallest moments can make a big impact.