Over the weekend, we explored different ways
to love. Today, tell us about the most unconventional love in your life.
For a Southern girl born in the 70’s who grew
up in small town Alabama, I would say my most unconventional love is that of
travel and experiencing other cultures.
I got the bug to see and reside in the world (not just the southern US)
when I lived in Spain for 3 months my second summer in college. My eyes were opened to life outside of my
small, small world, and my heart was filled with joy and excitement about who
and what else was out there. I LOVED it!
Once I moved
to Kwajalein, I feel in love not only with the opportunities we had to travel
to other places from there (that we probably never could have afforded or had
the time off to go while residing anywhere else), but I also feel in love with
getting to know the culture of the places, and over time I enjoyed discovering
ways to give back to them the joy they give me by just sharing their lives and
their part of the world with me. I miss
that part of living overseas and being immersed in the cultures of the earth,
although working on a military base is always nice because the “cultures” come
to you, so to speak, in the form of the spouses and others whom I have the privilege
of taking care of our military kids with.
Despite my
love for the NW and WA in particular (and being here only a little over a year
so far), my travel bug has not lessened. I’ve already been looking for jobs that would
give us the opportunity to go to Japan, Germany, or really anywhere in between.
I would love to continue our journey outside of the US at some point in the
future. I don’t anticipate it being anytime in the NEAR future, but I do keep
my eye out for what’s there just in case it’s sooner rather than later. J
The reason I
say this is an unconventional love for a southern small town girl is because
most of the people and family I know who were born and grew up in my home town
have absolutely NO DESIRE to ever leave AL or see any other part of the world.
When I was getting ready to move to Kwajalein, a cousin asked me, “Why would you
want to move there?” To which my heart’s response was (with a bit of shock),
why would I NOT want to move there?! It’s a tropical island with beautiful
blue-green waters, beaches all around, and a relaxed lifestyle where you have
almost as much time to play (if not more) than you do work. I knew I was not meant to live in one place
my whole life when my whole being shivered at the thought of staying in AL or
any one place, forever. I’m certainly
not a gypsy. I mean I lived 22 years in my hometown in AL, then the next 17 on
Kwajalein, but I see each “tour” being less and less as I get older and older,
and time gets closer to running out for me to finish my “Bucket List” of places
to visit or live.
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