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Up Front: A life education in travel: priceless
Emily Plihal
for Smoky River Express
Anyone who knows me well, knows the four most important people to me in this world live in Edmonton.
My five-year-old niece Rebecca, seven-year-old nephew Matthew, eight-year-old niece Julia, and 14-year-old nephew Kieran are great highlights in my life.
I may even go as far to say that I live vicariously through them. The opportunities those young children have at their grasp is overwhelming. To think about what remarkable humans they’ve become in such a short time always makes me very proud to call myself their aunt.
My nephew Kieran has had an opportunity to travel to France with his class. He left last Thursday and is due to come back next week. The opportunity he’s been given to travel is one that will be not only fun but also very educational.
I’ve always been intent on promoting vacations for youth. I am a firm believer that having the opportunity to travel will give them a solid foundation in this world.
It is extraordinarily important to see how others live, just to be proud of the lifestyle we are able to live on a daily basis.
I expect when Kieran returns from his trip, he will have a number of stories to tell. He will have seen how fortunate we are in Canada, with work readily available in a multitude of different environments.
As an aunt, though, I am very concerned about him being so far away without a family member travelling with him. I offered to travel with him as a chaperon, but apparently teenaged boys do not find it fitting to be supervised by their aunt.
It is scary to think of my nephew thousands of miles away. I still remember his first few years in this world, and think often about how quickly the years have passed since he had spaghetti smeared across his beautiful cherub-like face.
Now, nearly a man, he has the world at the edge of his fingertips. He will see the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower. He’ll experience French cuisine at its finest, and he’ll learn the history that sculpted France into what it is today.
How can a price be put on this education? Despite the hefty $2,500 some-odd dollars it required to send him on this trip, I think this trip is in fact quite inexpensive.
If we all evaluate the lives we lead today, a vast majority of us could save those funds within a year to make the same trip, even while paying for vehicles and rent and all the other adult-related bills that accrue.
What would we gain from this experience?
I was fortunate enough to travel to Greece and Italy with G.P. Vanier when I was in eleventh grade. Although I’m sure I didn’t fully understand the history and mythology that is prominent in these countries, I still gained a better understanding of life when I was there.
My most vivid memory of the countries is the impoverishment that was evident throughout the cities and country-side. I was able to gain a greater comprehension of what it was like to have nothing. I gathered from my travels that no matter where we live, no matter what colour our skin, and no matter how much money we possess, we are all humans and are all in need of only the basic necessities.
So while I think about the four most beautiful humans in my life, I thank my lucky prayers that we live in Canada and that we’ve got the opportunity to become affluent, if by choice. We all have the opportunity to become educated, successful, and powerful. And, we have the chance to promote the success and survival of those around us.
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