Letters to Shane

Our sitter, Shane, is taking a gap year before college to do some travelling.   She's leaving this week to head to Indonesia for three months.  She returns for a bit and then heads to Africa for much of the spring.   Her mother is collecting letters to her with any thoughts we might have and will present the letters to her before she leaves later this week.  Tonight my daughter and I wrote our letters.   My daughter's is far better than mine, I'm pretty sure you'll agree.

Dear Shane,

Your mother asked us to write a “secret” letter to you to send you off on your gap year travels. What to say? What advice to give? What words of wisdom do I have to impart? I suppose I should first start off saying we shall all miss you. My daughter has only just finished writing her letter to you in which she unequivocally states exactly how much she is going to miss you. On the advice front, make wise choices, although you already do that. Which leaves only words of wisdom.

I’ve thought about what I’d say and I kept coming back to when I took a trip abroad during my college years. My parents told me I could take one trip while I was in college, so choose wisely. Given that I hadn’t expected to take any trips abroad while in college I was fairly excited about the prospect. When an opportunity came up to travel to both Egypt and Turkey I had my choice. I’ve been fairly obsessed with ancient Egypt since childhood and this was a chance to go to Egypt, see the great pyramid of Khufu, travel down the Nile in a boat, explore the Valley of the Kings, including King Tutankhamen’s tomb, see the temples at Abu Simbel plus many other things I didn’t know at the time would be important or interesting but turned out to be.

Also, I got to go to Turkey.

You might note that the second half of the trip didn’t factor in much in my excitement. I had no expectations of Turkey, it was just the other part of the trip after we’d visited Egypt. I didn’t think it would be interesting really, I mean how could it possibly compare with mummies, tombs and pyramids? But I was wrong, it was fascinating. I enjoyed the entire trip.

I didn’t know any of the people I would be traveling with, but we became friends. We had good times and bad—and there were definitely bad. Some of us got a stomach bug while we were on that boat going down the river Nile. It was no joke, it was one of those, “I can’t stop vomiting and I think I’m going to die” kinds of things. I remember when the doctor was eventually called for those of us with the worst cases. He came into the tiny boat cabin and explained he needed to give me a shot in my butt. I couldn’t stand, much less get on all fours with my pants down. I managed it just long enough for him to give me the shot before passing out. But then I was better. And it never felt so good being well—and being on a boat traveling down the Nile.

In Turkey we were on a bus a lot and one of the places we went was Troy. The original, the real, Troy. We saw some of the most beautiful sights and had food that was incredibly delicious. There were bazaars and then, because it was a ways into the trip, we saw a McDonalds. We hadn’t seen anything other than local cultural food since we’d left the United States. We needed that taste of home. And let me tell you something: McDonalds fries have never tasted so good in all my life.

Those are just a handful of the memories I have from my trip abroad while I was in college. Why am I telling you all of this given that you’re going to entirely different places? Because it’s stuck with me. The memories. That single trip I remember more than any of the other places I’ve ever been in my life. I hope your travels are equally meaningful and memorable. From hearing about them when we talked earlier tonight, I can’t imagine they won’t be.

Have fun, make friends, learn things, and of course, make wise choices.

The Big Boy Update:  My son wanted both his father and me to take him to school today to send him off on his three-day field trip with the third-year students.   It will be a small trip, with only twelve or so students.   He's known about this trip for two years and seen his older classmates go.   He's excited about being able to go this year, but it was nice he wanted us to go and give him a hug goodbye this morning.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter's letter to Shane