Dear Parents,

First, we just want to say thank you. We know that none of this would be possible without your full support. None of us kids would be able to travel the world if you didn't share our desire to do so. Your love for travel was passed onto us at a young age, instilling a since of wonderment and appreciation that has followed us into our college years. Without the upbringing of atypical family vacations, we wouldn't have the courage to spend months away from everything we know as normal.

We want to apologize for complaining about not going to spring break with all of our friends when we were in middle school. Looking back on it, our trip out west was way more fun than a week at Seaside with hundreds of thirteen year old kids could've ever been. I completely understand now just how horrible that trip would've been.

For all the times we complained about our weird weekend trips to strange towns, we're sorry. Your uncanny ability to find extraordinary attractions is a skill we are still trying to hone. Thanks to you, we've become the unofficial tour guide for all of our friends. We know how to skip the tourist traps and act like a local. Just like in life, you taught us that following the crowd isn't always the best option.

You taught us that it's okay to get lost. The unplanned adventures often turn out to be the most fun, after all. Getting side tracked, broken down, or utterly lost helped us grow and become self-reliant. We know that it is okay to ask for help when you really need it. You taught us that doing so makes you smarter, not weaker. Watching you navigate those situations gave us the confidence to do it ourselves ten years later and on our own.

In fact, many of the lessons you taught us, we learned outside of the home. We watched you go through the world with grace, strength, and compassion. Your ability to adapt to any situation is something we admire to this day. Your constant reminder to put our phones away and live in the moment is something our generation needs to hear. While we heard it more than we like to admit, we know that we've experienced so much more in life because of it. You taught us that instead of striving for the social media perfect life we should just live the one we were given to the max.

Without your love of travel, none of us would be who or where we are today. So, we just want to say thank you. Thank you for our upbringing. Thank you for trusting us. Thank you for believing in our abilities when we didn't. Thank you for the beautiful lives we have. Thanks for always supporting our crazy adventures and weekend get a ways to places we only just learned about. After all, we did learn that from you.

With love,

Your vagabond kid