30 Days of Indie Travel Project: Family

I am a little behind after nearly 60 hours on a train over the last five days. So here we go with Day 25 of the 30 Days of Indie Travel Project.* The theme is Family.

Family shapes who we are, but sometimes the family we create plays a bigger role in our lives than the one we were born into. Tell a story about how either of your “families” have impacted your life and your travels.

I have never been super close to my family. At various times throughout my life, I have felt like I just don’t quite fit with the rest of them.

But at other times, we fit perfectly and I can see where I get certain traits from my parents or grandparents or how alike my brother and I can be in some ways.

My dad traveled a lot for his job when I was growing up. Hearing about him flying off to spend a week or more in places like Italy, Singapore, Brazil or South Africa certainly contributed to my interest in seeing the world.

On the other hand, my mom’s only trip out of the country prior to 2004 was to Canada. We ventured to both France and Italy together on separate trips and, unfortunately, realized our travel styles and priorities really didn’t mesh.

My brother Marc has a passion for music, not travel. But he also has an innate curiosity about almost everything and has shown incredible enthusiasm about my trip through the former Soviet Union. He has sent me links to articles about everything from hockey in Kazakhstan to a gas crater in Turkmenistan to lost art in Uzbekistan.

My uncle Bruce is a news anchor for a television station in Iowa – a profession that has given him opportunities to travel throughout the world. He visited Russia years (maybe even decades) ago, when it was a much different place. It has been fun to hear his memories of the country and how his experience then compares to mine now.

My grandparents didn’t travel much, but my Grandpa Dalton taught European history at a college, so clearly the interest was there. My mom has told me he always wanted to travel to Europe but never wanted to go alone after my grandmother passed away. He died last summer, but I’d like to think he would be excited and proud of the journey I am currently undertaking.

Likewise, I am thankful that I had a chance to visit Norway and see the home of my Grandpa Aune’s ancestors and share that with him before he passed away. Seeing tears well up in his eyes as I showed him pictures from my trip to Selbu is something I will never forget.

Now, I hope to pass on a love of travel to my niece and nephew. Gideon is barely one, so I gave almost-3-tear-old Evangeline a globe before I left on this trip – she may still be a bit too young to get it, but I hope at some point she can spin it around and look at all the places I have visited and think that she’d like to do the same someday as well.

*Throughout the month of November, BootsnAll is inviting bloggers from around the world to join them in a daily blogging effort – the 30 Days of Indie Travel Project –  designed to reflect on how our travel experiences over the last year – or whenever – have shaped us and our view of the world. Bloggers can follow the prompts as strictly or loosely as they like, interpreting them in various ways and responding via text, photos or video posted on their own blogs.