Picture: Greece 1971 

51 years ago July 3,1967 I started working for American Airlines. 

It was a day that I will never forget! Mainly, because I knew something big was going to happen in my world. I learned to travel around the world. This was the beginning of my true education!

I already had a job that was OK. All I cared about was earning my own money so I wouldn’t need to ask my parents for anything. Being independent was paramount for me.

I saw in the newspaper that American Airlines was hiring. I decided to go for an interview. It was on 3rd Ave and 43 Street in Manhattan. I already worked about 3 blocks from this location. So I called and asked for an interview. I walked over on my lunch hour and interviewed and got the job. This is 1967…one interview and they told me right then that I was hired. The only problem was that I would be making $5.00 less a week than my $67.20 that I was already earning. Isn’t that incredible! I was still living with my parents (I was 19) and I was saving to get my own apartment, which my father told me wasn’t going to happen because I was too young and I needed to be married in order to move out. Now this is yet another blog post in the making. Italian and Catholic parents!

I go home that night and tell my parents and for the first time in my memory my father decided to be involved in an important decision in my life (other than the moving out decision which he was adamant about) He said to me “I will give you the $5.00 a week until you get a raise~ take the job!” 

So being the good Italian girl that I am (oh excuse the slip! meant to say I WAS) ~ I took the job! And it was one of the best decisions of my life. 

My father wanted me to take the job for one reason only~travel benefits. He said “as soon as you get your benefits mom and I are going to Hawaii. I had to work there 6 months before I had travel benefits and true to his word he was planning his Hawaiian vacation in the 7th month of my employment. They actually flew on a pass before I even used any of my travel benefits. 

My father was in the Marines during WW2 and he arrived in Honolulu right after Pearl Harbor. He wanted desperately to go back there and see it again.

“And if travel is like love, it is, in the end, mostly because it’s a heightened state of awareness, in which we are mindful, receptive, undimmed by familiarity and ready to be transformed. That is why the best trips, like the best love affairs, never really end.” ~Pico Iyer

Unlike my parents my first trip wasn’t until the following September,1968, which was over a year after I started working for AA and it was to California (of course~east coast girl had to meet west coast). And where did I go~~ I went to a Jimi Hendrix concert at the Hollywood Bowl. Big deal then and epic upon reflection!

For the next 20 years I traveled anywhere between 5-10 times a year. One of my favorite destinations was Puerto Rico. I use to work a 3-11PM shift at JFK and there was an 11:35PM flight to San Juan. At least every other month I would take that flight on a Saturday night and stay for my Sunday/Monday days off and return Monday night. That was a wonderful time in my life and also it was my education. 

Traveling is still my go to when I need perspective and balance. 

Traveling is the way to learn about myself and the world that I inhabit

Traveling is educational no matter if I have seen the place or it’s something new. I am always a different person when I return. 

I am a better version of myself because of traveling, exploring and having different experiences. 

And finally I will compare world traveling to traveling within my own psyche. I find similarities in these things. Whether external travel or internal travel there is always something to learn and explore. The scary parts of uncovering something that has never before been seen or experienced and the familiar terrain of what is in front of me on a daily basis. It doesn’t matter near or far there is always something to learn. 

“Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.”~Henry David Thoreau