Before every trip, my dressing room undergoes a massive overhaul that usually looks something like the aftermath of a natural disaster, except... I'm the disaster. This purging is necessary in order to find everything I need that was chucked aside after the last trip - the universal adapter, portable charger, theta camera, video camera, digital camera, dual-voltage hair appliances - you name it, it's in that mess somewhere. Anyway, I'm packed now. I tried convincing myself I could get by with just a carry-on this time, but I remembered it's almost Christmas and where would I stuff any presents I might find? Better safe than sorry.
I'm headed to Paris for a few days and I'm looking forward to sharing a preview of what's to come for my student travelers in the spring. It's so fitting that this trip occurs over Thanksgiving Break because as I look back over the last few years, I feel so much gratitude for the opportunities I've had which are making these first student trips possible at CS. Sometimes I think that I've had more than my share in life, so it's time to start multiplying the effect by helping students have and find their own. On the first day of class this year, I gave students an interest survey and left a place for them to ask me anything. Two questions were repeated over and over: 1) Where have you traveled? and 2) Why do you travel? At first I thought, why do I travel? Why do I breathe? The more students asked this question, the more I realized they were trying to understand why it's so important to me. I hope through our shared experiences over the next two years and through our classroom activities, I can effectively convey that we travel for adventure but we also travel to learn, we travel to understand, we travel to see ourselves as part of the larger world outside. I have found that the more I travel, the more I care about other people and the earth, and the less I care about money or material things. This is what I hope for my students.
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