Monday, August 29, 2011

All it takes is passion and determination...

My passion for travel and my love of foreign adventure began when I was 16 and that was a long time ago. This first trip, a "Sweet Sixteen" present from my parents,  was to Paris and southwestern France where I stayed with French friends of  my family. Just recently I found some pictures of myself at JFK right before my departure; those were the days when flying on an airplane meant "looking good" so there I was in my white dress, low heels, hose, wearing a red, white, and blue corsage (a "send-off" touch from mom and dad)...and looking very serious. Little did I know then that this first overseas trip would awaken in me a passion for travel and a determination to see, touch, and taste as much of the world as I could fit in my lifetime. So many memories stand out from that first trip...seeing Notre Dame and realizing that my country was still in its infancy, the charm of Parisian rooftops as seen from the Eiffel Tower, the pouring rain and the outhouse with the dirt floor-minus the toilet paper, but with plenty of newspapers, the French boys in Leon who sang under my window in the middle of the night as my friends and I were leaving to return to Paris, and who could forget the customs agent in New York who made fun of my Charles Jourdan shoes and took away my saucisson. Since then I've been privileged to live out my dream; whether during my college days, working years, and now during retirement, I have learned that all it takes is wanting something badly enough that you make it happen...add to that a little moxie, a curiosity about people, and a love of food...and let the adventure begin.