Don’t worry about what they’ll remember.

We’ve traveled a lot with Skyler, though the pandemic slowed us down for a while. People often comment on how little he’ll remember from these early adventures, and they’re right—he won’t recall his first flights, road trips, or even his first Disney visit. But that’s completely okay, because his remembering isn’t the point. Travel is not about holding onto memories for later; it’s about the experiences we’re sharing now and the moments of joy in the present.

Travel of any form can change you, often for the better. The travel that we do, the places that we go, the people we meet, the worlds we’re exposed to… all of it becomes part of us. Even after decades have faded the details of the memory, we still feel the effects of our experiences. We are still changed by what we experienced.

Travel has already begun to change Skyler. By taking our kiddo on all sorts of adventures, riding different modes of transportation, eating different types of food, hearing different languages, killing time in airports, sleeping in unfamiliar locations, hanging out with unfamiliar people, standing in long boring lines, and dealing with uncomfortable situations, he is becoming adaptable.

Being off schedule and out of his normal environs doesn’t seem to phase him. He is learning the importance of listening to Mama & Dada in public, and how to deal with disappointments and boredom. He is learning how to interact with people in the service industry, how to ask for what he wants, and that there’s an order to things. He is learning to cope with disrupted routines and discomfort and how to deal with life’s lemons along the way! Really, he is learning that home can be anywhere when you’re with your people, as long as you have a place to rest your head and charge your phone at night.

He gets to practice patience and following instructions and dealing with limited choices, while we try to empower him with as much autonomy as we can allow. Because at the end of the day we are not raising a child but a fellow human. And I want to raise someone who can go with the flow, who is kind to strangers, who yearns to know more about this amazing world.

Through travel and even visiting theme parks, we are building a foundation for his future, and for our family’s trips. While he may not remember the specifics of his early travel days, he will one day cherish the photographic memories and also be ready for anything that our wanderlust throws our way.