Hi world! Chris here. Now that I’m entering a new chapter in life there are so many new things that make it really easy to get caught up in the here and now and make me worry about what else is coming in the future.
I’ve got a whole new semester of classes I’ve just started and a year’s worth of work to take on at my new job. Then there’s the matter of new clubs and activities, plus having a social life with friends. Altogether, this makes little room in my mind to be occupied by anything other than the both exciting and very stressful future.
However, while it’s important to live in the present, I think it’s also important to remember the past. There’s a lot of good that can come out of remembering specific moments in one’s life.
Memories can give you motivation when you feel like giving up. Or remind you how important what you’re doing is and how far you’ve come to do it. Sometimes they can show you what really means the most to you when you think you’ve forgotten.
So even though I have a million new things to think about or work on, I also want to make sure I take some time to focus on what I’m leaving behind in my life. Real time travel may not exist yet but taking a little walk down memory lane is almost as good. That’s why I’d like to take this week to look back on some of my favorite trips I took way before I even thought about this blog. (It’s definitely not because I was lazy and didn’t do anything other than school last week.)
Most of these trips happened too long ago for me to make a post that would be relevant or interesting. So, I decided to find my five favorites and put them together in one post. Enjoy!
Outer Banks, North Carolina
This is one of the last family vacations we took before everyone moved away. My oldest sister was already married at this time and didn’t get to come, but other than that, it was almost the entire gang.
Judging from the pictures, it looks almost like it was only me and Rae, but the truth is that we are the only camera hogs. Especially at the aquarium where there were cool things to pose with. (Side Note: Rae is OBSESSED with sharks. It’s a little weird how obsessed she is.)
We used to vacation at the Outer Banks more when we were all a lot younger. It wasn’t a constant thing because the fact that my parents run a farm makes going anywhere really difficult. But that’s what makes the beach something special. It was one of those rar places we all got to come together and hang out.
It’s also where I caught my favorite picture of Rae ever.
I think it’s also part of the reason I like traveling so much. I used to HATE the long car rides, but overtime I grew to enjoy it. Now, as long as the destination is great, I LOVE long car rides with good music. I only learned that from long family trips like this.
Riverbanks Zoo, South Carolina
I’ve already stated several times before that I’m a BIG fan of animals, so obviously I like anything that involves them. However, zoos are somewhat of an iffy thing for me because I’m sensitive enough to feel really bad about keeping wild animals in cages. I feel like they deserve to be free.
But I also know that a lot of them probably wouldn’t actually make it in the wild because they don’t know how to survive on their own. So, that makes me feel a lot better about enjoying the zoo and all the amazing animals there.
This particular zoo is in South Carolina, so we used to go when visiting my grandmother in my mom’s home state. Her house doesn’t have a big yard, or internet, or really TV, so I always remember being so excited to get to go to the zoo and actually do something as a kid.
Something that’s also random but neat about this zoo is that the school my parents met at (Clemson University) is actually one of the sponsors for the tiger expansion because that’s their mascot.
Norfolk, Virginia
This place is probably more special to me than any of the other places I have been because this is where I went on my first mission trip! My church took a group of us to help run Vacation Bible School at some of the local parks so that the kids in town had somewhere safe to go learn about Jesus.
It was one of the hardest and most exhaustive weeks of my life, and I felt near miserable the whole time, but now I can only look back and smile. This is where I helped lead a really special little boy to God for the first time.
(Side Story: I also wrote a personal essay on the experience for an English class my freshman year of college. I turned it in for a contest the school held and won. Now, it’s published in the workbook for that particular class.)
I’m not a super extroverted person, so just talking to people can be terrifying. The thought of sharing my testimony or talking about my faith is even worse. However, working with kids and getting to know them for a whole week helped build up my comfort and courage so that I could teach them better.
It was a really great growing experience for my efforts of ministering to others. When I meet someone now, my life as a Christian is one of the first things people know about me. It really makes Norfolk, Virginia mean something special to me.
Pawley’s Island, South Carolina
This trip is probably my favorite beach trip I’ve ever taken. No offense to the family vacay at Outer Banks, but this was the first vacation I took with a best friend’s family instead of my own. It made it super exciting. (That’s also why we did the very cliche heart around the setting sun picture.)
Mick and I have been like sisters ever since before the second grade. This trip gave us a week to actually live together and goof off at the beach. It was also her birthday so that made it even better.
Since I actually live at the beach now, I’m a pretty hard judge on beach towns. The Outer Banks and Pawley’s Island pass my judgement test. Both have more things to do and places to go besides just going to the beach. I can only take so much sand in a day.
There were also alligators in the rivers and estuaries around our hotel, so we got to ride our bikes out and see them in the evening. It was both scary and really cool.
This was one of the first trips I’d taken without my parents or anyone else in my family with me. It was a little nerve wrecking to start, but it went away very quickly. Now I know that I can actually go off without my family and I can still have a great time. Yeah I miss them, but sometimes it’s important to experience life a little without them.
Gotta love Pawley’s Island for the lesson.
Lazy 5 Ranch, North Carolina
I have loved this place since I was a child. I used to spend many summer days feeding the animals at the Lazy 5 as an activity with the local 4-H group. As I’ve grown up, that hasn’t changed much.
I’m not sure I’ve actually learned much from going to feed animals out of a car, but it’s still one of those places I always want to go when I’m home and don’t have plans for the day.
One of my best friends from college lives in the same area as Lazy 5, so I have an even bigger reason to go now than my own animal obsession. I also get free food because some of the workers go to my college as well.
Maybe Lazy 5 has taught me how important it is to meet others and make friends. I’ve already stated I’m not an extrovert so sometimes getting to know others isn’t my favorite thing to do. However, just a few simple trips to a local petting zoo are great examples of why I need to put myself out there and get to know others.
Of course, I’d probably still love going even if I didn’t get anything out of the trip. And the same goes for the other four. Lucky for me, that isn’t the case.
I didn’t start this post with the intent to find any hidden lessons or reasons of importance in the places I’ve been before. I was only planning or posting a couple of pictures and maybe sharing a few stories. Looking back on them now, I see that maybe some of them were just for fun, but some of them helped shape me and my passions today.
Through my trips, even small trips, I got to fall in love with my family, find what it means to have faith in Christ, learn to live independently, and learn when not to. It makes a lot of sense why I love going places so much now.
If you get the chance, take some time for your own little trip. No need to be far because a lot of these weren’t. You never know what might happen if you just go down the street. Maybe there’s an adventure waiting right outside the door.
“It’s a dangerous business, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”
-JRR Tolkien
Here, There, and Back Again 