In 1995, for the first time, I left North America. Six weeks with a Eurail pass and a giant back pack at the age of 38, my perspective of the world would never be the same. You could say that summer that “I was Woke”. It’s not that I hadn’t traveled. I had. I threw the dice at 23 and drove cold turkey to Seattle – taught there for six years. Dodger Dogs to Fenway Franks took me all over the USA and Canada. I wasn’t afraid of breaking the bubble, I was just ignorant to anything that took me out of the States.
And then I went. Six weeks – the whole shabang – Germany, Austria, France, Italy and it’s wonderful food and beautiful people and gorgeous sunflowers against a bright blue sky. Spain and Portugal and a week with a car with a steering wheel on the wrong side in Ireland. And Paris. My life. My vision. My awareness of the world, of my world, shifted. Seismically.
And I’ve been on the move since. My mission as a teacher is to help place young people in that same boat that I was in, back in 95. For so many reasons. Travel doesn’t create awareness, just like sports doesn’t build character. Travel puts you in a position to test yourself, to see “you” from a different perspective, with different eyes. To look and listen in a way you’ve never before been challenged to do. It the best way I know of to “Wake Up”; you are out there on the head of pin. Anywhere you go is good. The further the better. And if phone service is unavailable – Perfecto. In the old days you couldn’t get it anywhere but a broken down pay phone, that eventually cut you off in mid sentence. That was being out there.
So a lot my life is now dedicated to the search – to make me a better citizen of the world, one who cares and knows of issues confronting others than myself, my fellow citizens. I go to learn, for me obviously. Also so that I can teach my students – and encourage them to stretch their wings and fly.
Below you’ll find some Pages of Places I’ve been, of discoveries that I’ve made. I am working to update each of the journeys. I’m a bit behind. But the “Top Ten” is pretty cool and every summer something new makes the list.
So…please take a look. Any comments feel free to drop me a line.
