Fulfilling my wondering wanderlust
Please welcome Holly Rosen Fink, social entrepreneur, blogger and theater producer. This post is first in a series about Holly's travels to Asia.
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Motherhood and unfulfilled wanderlust...
unfulfilled wanderlustAfter our first child, my husband and I
decided to backpack through Asia. It was a place I had long regretted not going
in my 20's and I spent the first year of my daughter's life making mental plans
for our trip. But then I got pregnant and the plans were scrapped.
I spent the next 8 or 9 years battling various doses of wanderlust, which we enabled by some fabulous trips abroad with the kids. But the thought of backpacking around Asia never left me.
A few years ago I turned 40 and decided it was time to resurrect the dream of our trip. Only this time I decided to mix things up and go alone. As much as I loved traveling with my family, I knew that I needed time to myself to fulfill a part of me that had been dormant since giving birth. To be able to roam through alley ways, nip into cafes, stay up for hours if I choose to, go to concerts, operas or old movies at night, take long boat rides, hike up mountain, wander through markets, take photos and just talk to the locals.
trip of a lifetimeIt's what I wanted to do.
It's what I needed to do.
My husband promised me a flight to Hong Kong, but it took a few years for that promise to come to fruition.
Late last year, it was time. While telling a friend from out of town about it over drinks at a bar in NYC, she listened, nodded and told me gently that she was joining me. "I" became a "we" and I didn't mind at all.
We would be two moms traveling through Asia without our families. Two moms who were used to being needed all day long, suddenly thrust in a foreign land with a backpack and a map.
Getting ready for departure was easy. We started months before we were set to leave. I arranged for my mother to come stay watch over the daily routine. I created a family calendar and made lists. My friend reached out everyone we know for travel tips and correlated them in a long Google doc. We bought guidebooks.
to be a world travelerBut the biggest thing to get ready was to let
go and not worry about what would happen as soon as I set out on my journey. I
realized that it was okay if things slipped while I was away. Maybe my kids
wouldn't make it to Hebrew School. Maybe they'd wear mismatched socks. Or dirty
clothes, for that matter. As long as they would be fed, safe and content,
that's all that mattered.
Every time we told people we were heading on a solo adventure, they immediately assumed we were traveling on business or were having a mid-life crisis. How could I not be traveling with my husband, they asked?
Why is it so shocking, I asked myself? Why so unusual? My kids are now old enough that I knew they'd be fine. More than fine. Nothing would change and when I returned, we'd reunite happily. But then life would go on. And my trip would become a distant memory.
But it would be my memory of a time where I ventured into the orbit to explore another culture far, far away and traveled the way I wanted to.
Mine.
A memory I would not have to share with anyone.
Read Holly’s other stories on GoGirlfriend:
Thank you Holly for sharing your travel adventures with us. Have a travel story to share? Connect with us on Twitter and Facebook - we'd love to hear from you!
About Holly Rosen Fink
Holly Rosen Fink ~ @theCultureMomHolly
Rosen Fink is a Marketing, Communications, Public Relations, Branding and
Social Media expert with over 15 years experience increasing brand awareness
and sales at leading publishing houses and media companies. She is the founder of TheCultureMom.com and
has been a contributor to Family Vacation Critic, A ChildGrows, Ciao Bambino, CBS New York, The Savvy Source, Kidzvuz, Travel Savvy Mom and Project You Magazine.
Last year she edited Come Closer: How Tourism is Shaping the Future of Nations and associate produced the off-off-Broadway hit The Best of Everything. She's currently producing the NYC production of Listen to Your Mother.
Catch up with Holly online:
- TheCulturedMom.com
- Twitter: @TheCultureMom
- Facebook: CultureMom
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Holly, Thanks for sharing
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