We're set to go on “vacation” in another week, which only means we're seeing a few friends and family in a few places we've already lived. When it comes to “vacation,” we stopped using the “v” word a long time ago; we’re always taking “trips” instead. (For the antithesis of our experience, Google “Vacation.”)
Our initial plans for a break were to start this week and go through the Fourth of July week for a total of 12-14 days away, but that schedule got thrown out months ago because of a board meeting this Friday, as well as that, summer or not, we’ve got a limited amount of time to launch a new school two months from today. And that's okay...or at least reality.
I don't know if it's a blessing or a curse, but reality is where I tend to live and move and have my being, often at the expense of my many idealist dreams. I wanted to take Megan to London for a week for our honeymoon; we ended up renting a cabin in Arkansas for three days because we had neither time nor money to do otherwise. I went to Africa and planned for our family to spend six months in Uganda in the fall of 2001 (with an eye to possibly staying years as missionaries); Megan, however, became pregnant with our third that summer and 9/11 happened in September, so those plans changed.
After a nice “trip” back to Colorado Springs (where we lived for 12 years) last summer, we hoped to return this summer so the girls could finally go to Eagle Lake together (the last year it would be possible because of their ages) and we could get some time alone as well as part of a major staff reunion; however, school merger necessities made that trip impossible, especially if we wanted to also get back to the family farm in Illinois, which we haven't been to since Christmas (another “trip”).
Our plan next week? We just finalized it this weekend (which gives you some indication of how little it actually entails): see a few friends in St. Louis, spend 4-5 days on the farm, catch Megan’s parents in Tulsa on the way back. That’s it...and usually what it always is.
I feel like a failure when it comes to the Great American Vacation, largely because I’m not sure I have the courage (among other things—time, money, people-quotient) to actually take one. We've made noble attempts—the aforementioned trip to Colorado, for instance, or an actual “vacation” in the summer of 2009 to Florida so we could take a few pictures and prove to the girls that they, indeed, had once stood on a beach and seen an actual ocean—but in 16 years, that’s about it.
I remember one year before we had kids, Megan and I got a phone call from a timeshare company inviting us to make a trip from Colorado Springs to Pagosa Springs for a free weekend getaway if we sat through their presentation. We went, but the only thing I remember from the time was the company representative asking me how “committed” we were to “vacation.” Committed to vacation? As a farm kid, I had never heard those words used in the same sentence before. We didn’t buy a timeshare.
I get that people need breaks (and maybe it’s my pride that wrestles with that fact that I do as well), but taking time off (especially when I love what I do as much as I do) is a very unnatural experience for me. Even when we leave on “vacation” next week, it’s going to be a working trip: we’re unveiling new uniforms for The Academy that Monday and if there’s anything people have opinions about more than what their students are learning, it’s what their kids are wearing while they’re learning. It’s too early in our school’s one-month-old existence to make this kind of announcement and not be available (at least by phone, email, or online) should there be any questions.
What is it I’ve yet to learn on summer vacation? I suppose it’s just how and why (not to mention where and when) to actually take one. For those who have figured it out, I welcome your rationales.
And if you’re on vacation, well, I guess, enjoy it (somebody has to).