Finally! I made the travel arrangements. Am I really going back home? It’s been
so long since I have last been there. I want to see and experience so much again.
Going back to the old country is going back to my childhood memories.
Wait! What if the area has changed so much that I don’t recognize it anymore? It
has been so many years that I have not seen home.
After sharing my concern on Facebook, the responses took away any misgivings.
They gave me the motivation I needed to confidently.
My cousin included a link to some videos in her album that updated me to all
the new children born since I had left. I saw their smiling faces and heard their
giggles while romping in the countryside. I laughed remembering cousin and I doing
the same youthful antics when we were that age, with the nostalgia comforting me.
The children may be a new generation; the fashion may be different; but I saw
from their summer fun, plus from celebrations at holidays and special occasions,
that the same family traditions with which I grew up were still happening
Then my friend send me links to You Tube to experience holiday and
travel documentary videos that she thought would help me see what was new, as
well as what was the same, at home. Rather than plowing through vast amounts of
tourist tour guides, I could see and hear current experiences of other travelers.
I could learn from them so much more than from just reading about it. I now knew
what had remained the same, while learning all that has developed over the years I was away.
After that, I started searching online on my own for even more holiday & travel
documentary videos. I couldn’t get enough of all the travel videos that I found
on personal websites. Each video clip brought me closer to home. So many people
were recording the culture of my birth country.
Now I can’t wait for the day of my flight and have already packed my video camera
to share my travel memories and my piece of history with others when I get home.