Seeing many donning their fashionable sunglasses and sipping on their iced coffee drinks from Starbucks, it’s obvious that shorts, t-shirt and flip-flop season is in full swing. Just last week, it felt like we were bringing out the Christmas decorations and trying to find those ugly Christmas sweaters that resurface every December. Whether it is the Christmas season or summertime, one thing is constant in our lives, the desire to vacate our day-to-day existence and escape to a tropical or magical destination, even if it is just for a week.
I often reminisce about “the good ‘ol days.” When summertime meant hoping on your bike and pedalling as fast as you can to the local corner store. You and your friends would grab a Slurpee so big that it would instantly spike your blood sugar to concerning levels, and top that off with a bag of sour keys. You would sit on the curb outside the corner store and talk about nothing in particular, watching people, cracking jokes and wondering where the rest of your gang was. Back on your bike, you would race to an unsuspecting member of your posse’s house. You’d play video games, go on the trampoline and stage epic water gun fights that all the neighbourhood kids would get into. You were free … you were wild … you were on “vacation.”
Those simple times do not last forever, and soon riding a bike doesn’t seem as attractive as driving a car. You need to drive to get to that job you have now and there are no more Christmas, spring or summer breaks. Those friends you spend time with do not meet up at the corner store anymore. You have all graduated to local watering holes in the city, where you can enjoy some liquid courage, loud music and free spirits.
Life is busy now. New responsibilities. Greater expectations. And the journey into adulthood. Nonetheless, that does not extinguish the need for a break; the need to disconnect from it all and melt away somewhere. You and your gang get together and plan a week of adventure and sheer chaos in some remote land far from here. Flights need to be booked, accommodations need to be confirmed and invites to as many people as possible need to be sent out. Afterall, you need to soak this all in. This is going to be epic—you are going on “vacation.”
Pretty soon, there are little people in the picture. What happened? Suddenly, you are teaching them to ride bikes, but you are not allowing them near Slurpees or sour keys. Are you kidding me? Those are not organic. They will not be hanging around any corner store any time soon. And a trampoline? Well, it better have netting all around it and only one person on it at a time. Life is exhausting, you crave that word … vacation? But hold on, that term is no longer in your vocabulary. It’s not a vacation any more, it is a “family trip.”
There are now 17 suitcases you must load into multiple vehicles at the crack of dawn and head to the airport hoping you have your passports for you and the little people. Boarding passes? We have those, right? Did we put the house alarm on? Did we let the neighbours know we are going to be gone so they can watch for Amazon deliveries? The 30-minute ride to the airport is quite possibly the most stressful time in your life.
The flight is delayed. They lose your luggage, and the resort has you in the wrong room with a broken air conditioning system. Of course, the missing luggage has the home pharmacy that you packed, and your five-year-old gets bitten by some sort of mysterious exotic creature that causes his arm to swell like a bratwurst. This is the best “vacation” ever … I mean, “family trip.”
When it’s all said and done, you come back home and settle into your routine again. You tell everyone that will listen to you the trials and tribulations you had during your “time off.” But it does not matter, does it? Because those little people just got to experience the greatest week of their lives. They loved every minute of the “family trip” and will have zero recall of the lost luggage, the broken AC or the piles of Amazon packages that awaited you when you came back. Afterall, they got to be free … to be wild … to go on “vacation.”
Great job, parent! You just created some more “good ‘ol days….”
