Years from now, how clearly will you recall those wonderful vacation moments? A photo can begin the process, and a Travel Journal will ensure the detail is there in so many vivid ways.
One lesson I learned early in my Museum and Archives career was that almost no one is ever remembered if they don’t write something down.
Let me give you the example that has stuck with me from the moment it happened:
We had a visitor come into the Archives looking for information on her Grandparents - she knew when they were born and when they passed away….and I think she knew what her Grandad did for a living.
Then, she paused, and she put her hand over her heart. She looked at me as she patted her heart and said, ‘But I want to find out something more about them. I want to find out about who they were as a person.’
I still get choked up to this very day thinking about that woman and having to let her know that we had nothing to help her in her quest.
Her Grandparents had left nightingale behind - they had written nothing down.
If this tugs at your heart like it does mine - worry not! I do have a solution for you.
A Travel Journal recording an automobile trip From Penticton to Tweedsmuir Park in 1938 - a family friend write this and passed it along to my father. What a rich record of those times!
I would like to suggest that you think about keeping a Travel Journal. Think about jotting down where you went and what you did and whom you met and what the weather was like. Write about your 5(6) senses and how they made you feel as you watched that stunning sunrise, or tasted those new foods offered by some locals you’d met, or the set of day-hikes you enjoyed with family and/or friends.
In lots of ways, recording the simple rhythms and patterns of life as you’re ‘on the road’ (so to speak) will reveal more about you than you might think!
A simple record of the rhythms and patterns of your travel can reveal so much about your keen observational skills and more.
Those entries will show something about your keen observational skills, they will reveal your humour, your unique insights on time and place, and so much more.
So, imagine this:
How wonderful would it be for you to have a Travel Journal from a Great Grandparent as they moved to their new home half-way around the world? Reading through those pages would almost certainly give you some insights to ‘who you are’, and where you fit in your family and community and more.
In the end, it seems to me that we’d be all-round better people if we knew something of the details of our longer personal past. This certainly isn’t the only factor in “making us who we are”, but I can’t help but think it might play larger than we first think.
My morning view on a month-long paddle trip down the MacKenzie River in the Canadian Arctic. I have the photo, certainly, and I also have the Travel Journal entry that tells of me getting up before anyone else on the crew and just sitting to watch the brightening sunrise…..and how blessed I was to see this.
When all is said and done, my own practical experience and my years of museum/archives experience and training tells me that keeping a Travel Journal is the absolute perfect way to help you reach down and across the generations.
Finally, remember that keeping a Travel Journal isn’t supposed to be a job….so relax and I think you’ll quickly find that you get better and better with every single Travel Journal you keep.
I have a new course coming out to help you learn everything you need to come away from your journeys with wonderful memories captured in your own Travel Journal.
Click on the link below and have a look at everything you’ll find in the new course.
Brought to you by www.newtraveljournal.com
