My Grandparents were explorers

Hello Everyone,

Apologies for my delay in posting. Being out my routine has really thrown me off. But I'll be posting a lot more soon.

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As I prepare to set out on the road, I'm reminded of the first time I went on a pure adventure. By my middle teen years, I'd travelled a bit for hockey and to see family, but I'd never gone somewhere purely just to go.

In 1996, I was 16 years old, and my high school Chemistry teacher, an avid traveller, was organizing a trip to Ecuador. It was far, insanely exotic, and reasonably expensive. While not poor, my family is solidly middle class, and I am far from an only child.

I don't remember exactly how I paid for that trip, it was some combination of money I'd saved, some from my parents, and some from my grandparents. That last part is important because when the possibility of the trip first came up, they made it clear that money should not prevent me from going. If this was what I wanted, they'd make sure the money was there.

The message, even if never explicitly stated, could not have been more clear. Travelling, and learning about other peoples and places, is important.

My grandparents were, in many ways, not very worldly people. Italian counted as ethnic food. But upon reflection, the distance you travel depends where you start. My grandfather had a Grade 8 education before he left for the war, common for the time. My grandmother had a choice of secretary or nursing as vocational training. She chose secretary.

But they did travel, through the US, several Caribbean islands and to Mexico once. My siblings and I have gone to every continent in the world (save Antarctica), but I don't think that's nearly as far.

It's been over 20 years since that trip, and I can remember so much about it clear as day. I remember being in the airport in Quito and seeing soldiers with automatic weapons for the first time. I remember the wall of humidity hitting me when we got off the plane in the jungle. I remember trying to explain was snow was without a Spanish phrase book.

I suspect that, in their wisdom, my grandparents knew I would end up here, with a love of travel and a head full of great memories.

wes