{@}One of my earliest vacation memories is when my family took a trip over to the Philippines, at the time we were living on the Air Force base in Guam. On our way to the Philippines we had a layover in the Tokyo airport. I think we were rushing to our connecting flight and at some point I became separated from my parents. I was only around 5 at the time so I don’t remember a ton, but it was a pretty traumatic experience.

Here I was this little 5 year old white kid, lost in a sea of Japanese people at the Tokyo airport. I am no racist, but if you haven’t experienced being lost in a completely foreign country, just take my word that as a kid it is a whole magnitude scarier being lost in a sea of a people of a completely different race and language, than just getting lost in your own hometown or country. I still remember hopelessly looking around and just seeing this overwhelming mass of Asians, with no parent in sight. To be honest I don’t even remember the conclusion of the story or even how long I was separated from my parents. Maybe some nice passerby helped reunite us, or maybe my parents were able to find me. I don’t really remember, but I do remember that fear of being in an unknown land and people with no clue what to do.

Things have changed dramatically for me, now I have grown to relish that feeling of being in an unknown land just waiting to be explored. It is such an awesome feeling to be in a foreign country not really knowing what you are doing, but ready to have an adventure and make stories for your kids and grandkids.