In the past few days I had a bit of a disagreement with my dad. OK lets be honest we had more that a disagreement, it was more like a vigorous spat. Let me start at the beginning.
My family is all working over Christmas so I decided to spend it somewhere warm. Naturally when I booked a vacation to Jamaica I was thrilled. This was going to be the vacation of a life time, the resort was dreamy, the destination unexplored (by me), and best of all I would get to do something few people get to do, swim in a phosphorescent lagoon. I was excited and wanted to share that joy with the one man in my life that matters the most, my father.
I picked up the phone and with all the exhilaration I felt, I proceeded to tell my father what I had done. I booked a $2,400 vacation to Jamaica for the holidays. I was expecting him to share in my excitement, but imagine my surprise when I got the exact opposite, I was scolded. I am a 34 year old woman and I got scolded by my father. What is worse, is that I felt like a 5 year old little girl who was being scolded for braking a family heirloom.
At first, my father was very angry with me, so much so that he made me cry. I didn't want to talk to my father. I couldn't handle any more of his constant disapproval. Yet when he called back he called back to say thank you. He called to say thank you, for showing him that there is more to life than slaving away at work, and that money means nothing if you never enjoy it. It was my fathers form of an apology. During that conversation he asked me some hard questions. Like how I could justify spending that sort of money on a single vacation and what motivated me. Questions which I thought I answered honestly, yet somehow the answers felt shallow, like there was something missing.
There was. It wasn't till the next day that I knew what. I realized that the reason I was exited about the vacation wasn't because I was trying to capture my lost youth, it wasn't because I wanted to get away or that this was going to be the vacation of a life time. I realized that the reason I was doing this was because I didn't want to look back on my life with regret, I wanted to look back and say I DID THAT, I WENT THERE, I SAW THAT. I realized that I didn't just want to be alive, I wanted to experience it, I wanted to LIVE IT. That is what this vacation means to me. It means living, even though my dad thought I was irresponsible, foolish and crazy. Even though I agree with him to some extent I don't regret this, because this is what it means to live life.
So as a final thought I leave you with this quote “To live with no regrets, sometimes means, doing things others think are crazy”
My family is all working over Christmas so I decided to spend it somewhere warm. Naturally when I booked a vacation to Jamaica I was thrilled. This was going to be the vacation of a life time, the resort was dreamy, the destination unexplored (by me), and best of all I would get to do something few people get to do, swim in a phosphorescent lagoon. I was excited and wanted to share that joy with the one man in my life that matters the most, my father.
I picked up the phone and with all the exhilaration I felt, I proceeded to tell my father what I had done. I booked a $2,400 vacation to Jamaica for the holidays. I was expecting him to share in my excitement, but imagine my surprise when I got the exact opposite, I was scolded. I am a 34 year old woman and I got scolded by my father. What is worse, is that I felt like a 5 year old little girl who was being scolded for braking a family heirloom.
At first, my father was very angry with me, so much so that he made me cry. I didn't want to talk to my father. I couldn't handle any more of his constant disapproval. Yet when he called back he called back to say thank you. He called to say thank you, for showing him that there is more to life than slaving away at work, and that money means nothing if you never enjoy it. It was my fathers form of an apology. During that conversation he asked me some hard questions. Like how I could justify spending that sort of money on a single vacation and what motivated me. Questions which I thought I answered honestly, yet somehow the answers felt shallow, like there was something missing.
There was. It wasn't till the next day that I knew what. I realized that the reason I was exited about the vacation wasn't because I was trying to capture my lost youth, it wasn't because I wanted to get away or that this was going to be the vacation of a life time. I realized that the reason I was doing this was because I didn't want to look back on my life with regret, I wanted to look back and say I DID THAT, I WENT THERE, I SAW THAT. I realized that I didn't just want to be alive, I wanted to experience it, I wanted to LIVE IT. That is what this vacation means to me. It means living, even though my dad thought I was irresponsible, foolish and crazy. Even though I agree with him to some extent I don't regret this, because this is what it means to live life.
So as a final thought I leave you with this quote “To live with no regrets, sometimes means, doing things others think are crazy”