Since school is officially back in session, the summer holiday season is over. If you haven’t taken your summer vacation yet, you better hurry! And if you did…how was it? We have all experienced both good and bad vacations. Both give us stories to share and times to remember. And each one of us has our own unique way of doing that. What is your way?
Vacations are always set with the best of intentions. Whether spent in your own back yard or relaxing in some exotic spot, a vacation is a time of rest and recreation. We set time aside to suspend our work or our studies to get away from the day-to-day activities of life. A vacation is like a recess during the school day. We take a break to run and jump and play. We visit with our friends. We change our environment. Then we return to our work where we are able to function better and more efficiently. We need to take a break!
As Americans, we are very vacation deprived. Many countries mandate a vacation. The U.S. does not. You must take 30 days off every year in France. Some countries require 20 days of vacation, including Ireland, Italy, Australia and Greece. Japan and Canada only require 10. Many employers in the U.S. offer paid vacation benefits but the most senior employees receive only 13 days. And a lot of people don’t use all of them! No wonder we’re stressed out.
Sometimes vacations live up to our expectations. We experience amazing adventures. We are enlightened. We enjoy a multitude of wonderful meals in an array of different settings. We learn a new skill. We re-connect with our loved ones. Or we fall in love. We see great beauty in nature, museums, architecture and in each other. We return from our vacation with a sense of joy or peace or satisfaction. We are so happy that we were able to do what we did!!! And we did our vacation in our own unique way.
Other times vacations are challenging, frightening, frustrating and even life-threatening. We’ve all seen the reports of cruise ship passengers suffering through no power, no water, illness and high seas. It’s not just ships at sea that can ruin a vacation; it’s also airports, train wrecks and traffic jams. Sometimes reservations are lost and your hotel room is not available as planned. And I think most of us who have done a fair amount of travel have a lost luggage story to share.
We can end up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Consider a young woman vacationing on the beach in Nice, France when a truck runs through the crowd. Sometimes it’s the weather… a trip to Mexico during hurricane season can result in a flooded hotel with no food or fresh water. And no way out. Other times, we can experience illness or injury. Or we don’t get along with our travel companions. Our vacation just sucks. And we had to pay for it. We are so happy to return home!!!
Maybe you never had the opportunity to get away for a vacation this year. You enjoyed a staycation in the comfort of your own home. Or maybe you weren’t able to take time away from work to do that. Not everyone can afford to take a vacation. The average vacation cost for a week for a family of four is about $4000. Maybe you’re saving your money for the vacation of a lifetime.
Whatever your summer vacation experience has been, I’d like you to consider that you are in control of the story you tell yourself and others about that experience. You are always in control of the story you tell. It’s an easy story to tell when it goes the way you want it to go. It’s easy to repeat a story that makes you feel happy or allows you to share your positive experiences. We like the reactions we get and it reinforces our good story. But when our experience has been one that we didn’t like or one that caused us discomfort or loss, it’s harder to tell that story from a place of control. You may feel like a victim because of circumstances beyond your control like airport security and bad weather. And you may want to repeat that victim story because of the reactions you get. You may want to be the victim because it gives you an excuse to act in a certain way or blame others for your circumstances. Some of us enjoy a little pity party. But why consider yourself a victim if you can re-write that story to make yourself feel as if you were the hero of the story? You can always be the hero of your story. You are the director and the star of this movie called Life. You can decide. And then you can begin to plan your next vacation because you deserve to take a break.