"We're going on a family vacation!" The sound of this phrase can either have you jumping in the air for joy or trying to start a sprint out of the house. From my own experience of carrying out a routine summer family trip to the beach, I've learned the importance of a family vacation.
This isn't to say that they don't come with insane moments of annoyance, but hey, maybe that is exactly what we need in order to see how much they matter.
Family vacations bring a sense of quality time that you might not get at home. Don't you remember the good old days when you were little and got cornrows or, like me, intricate henna tattoos at the beach for absolutely no reason? There was a reason.
It was because it was something you didn't get to do every day, but you were with the people that you do get to be with every day.
By experiencing something new with people you are familiar with, whether it be an encouraging mom or a joke-telling dad, you got to experience new things with not new people. So why not do something that you wouldn't usually be able to back in your hometown? When family vacations are put on the table nowadays, it seems all the more evident that bringing back the sense of closeness and quality time should be savored!
Quality time is important in any relationship -- especially with family. You realize that being out of your hometown can also bring you out of your element. There is a sense of relaxation and excitement in the fact that you get to explore new places and try new things! I consider it a bonus when the "family" trip really means the "extended-family" trip.
We become so focused on our day-to-day lives, and I mean this in a very singular sense. When grouped with people who are our true family, and who we may not get to see on a regular basis, there is an opportunity for bigger connections and relationships to be made.
Suddenly, it does not matter how great of a person you can be on your own, but also how great of a person you can be when spending time with the ones who love you the most.
Memories have the ability to be made at every moment. Yes, they can be made from moments of embarrassment by parents, fights with siblings, but also picture-perfect days at the beach that will contain smiles forever. Whether it be a good or bad memory, I have the feeling that they will come in handy for our futures.
These vacations, as well as these places, that our families keep coming back to -- perhaps they will be the place that we will want to bring a family of our own back to. We grow from our experiences, and one of the best parts of going away for a vacation is that you get to grow somewhere new and unfamiliar.
Perhaps it is a place that you already call your second home. Either way: the establishment of a new grounds that allows you to be yourself and unwind for a little while is a very special thing.
Even though you might not physically be at your own home while on a family vacation, you are with people who have helped you to understand what a home is. The restaurant outings, beach days, and road trips all led you to a place, but with the people who have been around to help you get there.
Whomever it be that you consider family, is there to help make sure you have a grand time on a vacation that should help you unwind from the whirlwind of life. Maybe it was a bad year, and you weren't super excited to have a few weeks out of the summer being housed with your family members.
Or maybe you didn't realize that the vacation was exactly what you needed in order to clear your head enough and get a better perspective. Even though we may be traveling away from home, vacations bring family time, which seems to always keep us centered on our own definition of "home."
There might be a gloomy day in the future when you look at a picture of you and the relatives you miss, or the ones who have now become some of the closest people to you, and you will understand why family vacations were so important.
Maybe you didn't know it then, but these vacations were time that was meant to help you understand the meaning of family and why it can be held so dear to your heart. You got to go on adventures, and still are exploring new places because you learned that a home does not have to be a place, a house, or a town. It can be a group of people or the way they make you feel. This group and this sense of happiness is what keeps family vacations in such high standing for me, and I hope it does for you too.
