What Are Your Travel Dreams?
It has been so rewarding seeing friends realize their lifetime hopes. Some examples of this include educating their children, paying off their mortgages and feeling secure that they are on track to their retirement. In addition to seeing hopes achieved, it is a very rewarding experience to see them realize their dreams. Many have a dream to travel and are making that dream a reality. As a result of hearing so many exciting stories about their travels, we at BCR have created a world map that marks the travel destinations of our friends and clients. This will be a continual work in progress.
Whether their travels take them to visit family and friends in the next state or those far-flung in other countries, we celebrate their trips. Often clients travel to destinations to see sights or have experiences they have heard about. Did you know you can view the Northern Lights from both Alaska and Finland? One client said he knew from the 6th grade he would someday visit Africa after reading an article in a National Geographic magazine. The seeds of these dreams have been growing for a long time.
Others trips with much appeal are the anniversary trip to Paris, the golf outings to Scotland and the pampering excursions to spas in the southwest US. Sometimes travel plans are for a trip of a lifetime such as a family vacation to Hawaii and sometimes the plans are more long term, like visiting all 50 states or all 7 continents.
Some trips are not about the destination. For many travelers, the journey is just as important. People are traveling across America in travel-trailers, on trains and on motorcycles.
Other plans are all about the traveling companions - children and grandchildren – to show them what a great, big world is out there. Often, travel is to see different cultures, meet new people and come to know that, deep down, we all have more similarities than differences and that it’s better if we can take care of each other. Sometimes life is more about the experience than the location.
Some travel is not for pleasurable entertainment, but volunteering to make a lasting difference. For example trips are made to provide medical and educational services to needy populations both in our country and internationally. Organizations are involved in digging wells for clean water and teaching people in developing countries to build small village based businesses.
As I think about the value of travel to our clients, I think it can be more than reaping the benefits of a life well lived and well managed. The travel itself is a life-changing experience - meeting people who would have never come into their lives otherwise, seeing the good and the bad of a place’s history, experiencing new food fare and new scenery. These experiences will impact the way they view all other experiences that follow.
Our map is a monument to the unique dreams that define each of our friends and clients, and make our work a calling.
-Sandra Cleveland-