Thoughts from Laura  – Traveling is About Connection

I was reflecting this week during a killer bootcamp workout (I tend to get introspective during a workout to take my mind off the pain ☺)about the importance of connections and community. As I was suffering through a 45 second station thinking to myself that I’m done and I want to go home, the group in the station next to me started cheering for a lady who was lifting her heaviest weight ever and they all started high fiving her. It hit me as I was sitting there feeling sorry for myself that I’m not here for me, I’m here because we all need (myself included) a community around us and we all thrive as humans on connections with others. If the ladies surrounding me hadn’t shown up that day, the lady lifting her heaviest weight may not have been successful because it was the community of strong women around her that gave her the push she needed.

This made me think about how traveling is not about me, it’s about the connections I make with other people and the impact I can have on the community around me in the location that I am traveling too. Coming off of my family’s trip to France this summer, when I think about all of the best moments of the trip, it has nothing to do with something I did or experienced but instead about the connections I made with my family, the new friends I met, the lady I helped in the park in Paris, the tour guide who we ended up stopping and sharing wine with after he treated my family like his own.

So often I go into a vacation with the mindset that things better go perfectly for me because I paid a lot for this trip, and this is about me disconnecting and getting away to relax. While it’s totally those things and the goal is always to have an incredible time, shifting my mindset to thinking about how the connections I make and the community around me is the focus ensures I’m always coming out better than I went in.

I reflected on some of the best parts of some of my vacations over the past few years and all the best memories come down to connections with others. Here are some of my favorites:

• Sitting around a fire in Highlands, NC at a wine shop for 3+ hours talking to strangers about life over Thanksgiving break.
• Getting to know the staff at a villa we stayed at in Bluefields, Jamaica and becoming what felt like part of their family.
• The group I traveled with to France won over a cranky couple who started by giving us death stares and complaining about our noise and our kids by having a conversation with them (and bringing them a great bottle of scotch.) What started as a near fight ended with drinks for hours on their patio and the gentleman coming to say goodbye to our group at the end of our week there.
• Singing at the top of my lungs with a girlfriend driving around Napa and Sonoma with the windows rolled down.
• Meeting an Englishman in Mexico who just brought so much joy to our life that my husband and I still talk about Grimm 🙂

Next time you are traveling try to remember it’s not just about you and your experience, it’s about the connections you have yet to form and the community of people around you who all have a chance to make a positive impact.

~until next time