Turtle Shell Travel

Travel Advisor with Fora Travel

Tag: college

  • Fall highlights and what I’m working on as a travel advisor in September

    Empty nest, caring for elders, and booking the best trips

    Summer passed by in a blink, and I spent the majority of it caring for my elderly parents – one with mild dementia and one with a fresh hip fracture followed by a stroke. They’re both still with us – there adapting to a new living situation (situation) and the keep working together to manage their days. It’s quite admirable, actually.

    I haven’t hated spending much of my time in the Midwest this summer. It’s been hot and sunny and I love watching the corn grow tall and the beans turn yellow. As beautiful (and temperate) as Maine is, average highs of 85 are the way to spend the summer (with a/c).

    I’ve also had the chance to use my new carry-on bag, to transport TWO laptops (work and personal) through the airport. It fits under the seat, thankfully, although I often will put it overhead and put my (overloaded) purse under the seat.

    Summer was punctuated by sending both kids off to college. One matriculating with pomp and circumstance and the other heading off with his headphones on to start junior year. Last night was my first night with an empty house, but it was far from sad. It’s the way the world turns – our little ones grow to be big ones. You can call it the empty next, open door, or just a quiet place. I miss them and the past years, but am excited about what the future holds.

    Tufts matriculation – 2025, all 1800+ new students

    So what am I doing today? Planning travel of course. A sabbatical to Italy for friends is on tap. In the wings is a February break warm weather getaway for two families and a St. Lucia honeymoon. I’m listening to the hits of 1988, 1989 and 1990 (thank you, Spotify) to remind me that I was young once, and eating Chipotle leftovers. Not all days as a travel advisor are glamorous. While I’ve flown a lot to Chicago in the past 9 weeks, my time spent on the ground has been very ordinary.

    My goals for the next 3 months, is to get ready for Christmas with my college kids, plan some more great trips and keep checking on Mom and Dad. I’m working with a life coach to fine time my direction for the next 10 years, and enjoying quiet evenings with my husband in our quiet place.

  • Looking back to move forward

    Just as Taylor Swift has famously released her Red album, again, this weekend. I’ve been thinking of looking back in order to move forward with my life, with my blog.

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    This weekend I took my 16 year old son to visit University of Maine – Farmington. And although I kept my (mostly positive) comments to myself, I couldn’t help thinking of my undergraduate experience and how that, in many ways, it marked the beginning of my adult life. And now I’m watching him start to envision the start of HIS adult life. Deep sigh filled with lots of love, for him, for life.

    So, what does going to college have to do with travel? And why bring it up on a blog? I started this blog to share what I have seen, and I realize that my “ending” of parenting elementary school aged children is someone else’s (HIS) beginning. And when you get on that plane to a new destination, someone else on that same plane is on their way home from their adventure, their work trip, perhaps their goodbye to a loved one.

    I’d like to take this blog deeper than hotel rooms and destinations, and reflect on what travel does for us and to us. It makes us grow up and deal and realize that the outside world often doesn’t follow the same rules that you have at home. The language can be different and the views outstandingly different. The journey takes us along paths that others have walked before (perhaps for centuries). We can be the guide or the guided. And in between take off and landing, there are moments of anticipation, excitement, and deep reflection.

    Mitchell Road trees

    This morning in church, our pastor mention the “inward turn” that people take in worship. Where the prayers are private, unspoken. But you take that journey in community, just as we journey in a row of people on an aircraft. Where we think we are ending a journey, we are taking steps on a new one. Surrounded by others on their own path. Those interactions we do permit, even if it’s a smile behind a mask, reflect our human community.

    So, as a parent, I treasure where our family is right now. And even as this blog has been slow to take off, I’ll keep sharing where I’m at with this community, who values travel as much as I. On the way to church, I heard the song, “Closing time” by Semisonic, and the lyrics said “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end”. Yes, be it college, childhood, motherhood, a place or a relationship.

    So, today, I’ll enjoy Taylor Swift’s Red Album (TV), the remaking of her past, so wise, so admirable.

    Do you have any endings or beginnings you can place in the comments. Even if it’s a word that’s meaningful to you? As the end of the year is upon us and leaves are falling, what are you leaving behind or moving toward?

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