06/01/2026
Brenda’s Travel Truths
People often think loving travel is all about “seeing the world.” And yes, that’s part of it. But for me, it goes much deeper than that.
I don’t want to leave this world one day with a heart full of wishes and a life full of “maybe someday.”
I grew up watching my parents work incredibly hard to raise a large family. They kept food on the table, a roof over our heads, and gave us everything they could. But vacations? That just wasn’t something people like us talked about. In our home, vacations felt like a luxury for “rich people,” not something ordinary families got to do.
My mother’s biggest dream for most of her life was to go on a cruise.
And she finally did it in her early 80s.
I was so happy for her, because after all those years of dreaming, she was finally getting to experience something she had wanted for decades. And she truly did love that trip.
But there was also a part of that experience that has stayed with me.
Some of the excursions they had already paid for had to be canceled because the reality didn’t fully hit until they were actually on the ship: they just didn’t have the strength or stamina anymore to do all the things they had dreamed about for nearly 60 years.
They got tired easily. Walking around the ship became hard. Thank goodness there was a wheelchair available for them to borrow much of the time, because that was such a blessing on that sailing—but of course, that’s never something anyone should count on.
And while they still enjoyed the cruise, I could see it.
That quiet sadness in my mother’s eyes over the things she had waited too long to do.
That moment changed me.
It made me realize I don’t want to spend my life only wishing, dreaming, and waiting for “one day.” I want to go. I want to experience the places. I want to make the memories, tell the stories, look back at the photos, and smile with no regrets.
That’s one of the biggest reasons I love travel so much.
Not just because the world is beautiful.
But because life is now.
If there’s a trip on your heart, a place you keep thinking about, or an experience you’ve been saying “maybe someday” to… maybe this is your sign to stop waiting.
What’s one trip you don’t want to put off any longer? Drop it in the comments—
