Over The Rainbow......(500th Post!!!)
The first time I left the country I was seven years old. My younger bother, grandmother and I boarded a Pan Am flight headed to Barbados. I was hooked on travel, from that point on.
My brother and I spent the next few summers in Barbados and then it all came to an abrupt halt. From that point on, we spent our summers at sleep away camps in upstate New York.
The next time I boarded a flight to leave the country was in 1984. A year after I graduated from high school. That year I acquired my first passport. Getting a passport was more exciting for me than getting a license to drive!
In 2014, I will acquire my fourth passport!
Over the years, I've traveled to may parts of the world, and have had the pleasure of experiencing many different cultures and meeting a multitude of interesting people. I've found that I'm at my happiest when I'm traveling.
I often imagine that in my later years, I will be similar to that of the iconic character, whom I adore: Mame, based on the novel Auntie Mame: An Irreverent Escapade by Patrick Dennis. The national bestselling novel spawned a Broadway musical and two feature films.
During the times when I had no money to travel, me and friends would dive to JFK airport, park on the roof of the Pan Am building, climb onto the hood of the car and watch the planes take off and land. We would lie there, dreaming of the exotic places those planes were going, and pray that one day, we would be amongst the passengers heading there.
Dreams do come true.
I think my addiction to travel came directly from my desire to escape my circumstances. As you know, my youth was not always a happy one. I was trying -- am still trying - to get over the rainbow. To find a place where I am happy at least most of the time and more often than not - at peace.
That search continues today...but lately I'm feeling like I'm getting closer to hoisting myself over that proverbial rainbow.
What about you?
Bernice L. McFadden
My brother and I spent the next few summers in Barbados and then it all came to an abrupt halt. From that point on, we spent our summers at sleep away camps in upstate New York.
The next time I boarded a flight to leave the country was in 1984. A year after I graduated from high school. That year I acquired my first passport. Getting a passport was more exciting for me than getting a license to drive!
In 2014, I will acquire my fourth passport!
Over the years, I've traveled to may parts of the world, and have had the pleasure of experiencing many different cultures and meeting a multitude of interesting people. I've found that I'm at my happiest when I'm traveling.
I often imagine that in my later years, I will be similar to that of the iconic character, whom I adore: Mame, based on the novel Auntie Mame: An Irreverent Escapade by Patrick Dennis. The national bestselling novel spawned a Broadway musical and two feature films.
During the times when I had no money to travel, me and friends would dive to JFK airport, park on the roof of the Pan Am building, climb onto the hood of the car and watch the planes take off and land. We would lie there, dreaming of the exotic places those planes were going, and pray that one day, we would be amongst the passengers heading there.
Dreams do come true.
I think my addiction to travel came directly from my desire to escape my circumstances. As you know, my youth was not always a happy one. I was trying -- am still trying - to get over the rainbow. To find a place where I am happy at least most of the time and more often than not - at peace.
That search continues today...but lately I'm feeling like I'm getting closer to hoisting myself over that proverbial rainbow.
What about you?
Bernice L. McFadden
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