Topix Questions 43: Travel All Expenses Paid; Where Would You Go? What Would You Do? & 44: Do You Give Money or Time to Causes You Believe In?

 

Question 43/424:  You have one month to travel anywhere, all expenses paid.  Where will you go, what will you do?

Travel is one of those things that I aspire to do and dream of doing but ultimately know very little about and therefore the process of planning trips longer than a weekend stresses me out.  So, while I may be able to answer where I would go easy enough I don’t really know what I would do once I got to those places.

The first place I think of is Europe, mostly because I know that once you get there, there is so much convenient public transportation that you can visit multiple countries by train and experience everything the continent has to offer.  It would be very powerful to visit the Memorial and Museum of Auschwitz, it would be beautiful to see the Eiffel Tower in Paris, to see the Tower of London.  I would love to see Italy and Greece and Spain.  I even offered to tagalong with a friend if she won tickets to the Taylor Swift Era’s Concert in the United Kingdom even though I didn’t care about going to the concert, because then she and I could split the costs of a hotel stay and actually experience being overseas after she was done at the concert. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen and to date the only international travel I’ve done is from Michigan to Canada.

As a kid, I was really intrigued by the Egyptians and mummification, so I feel like visiting Egypt and seeing the pyramids in person would really fulfill a childhood dream of mine.  I’ve also wanted to visit Turkey ever since I was in fifth grade and some Turkish soccer players came to visit our school and let us try caviar.  I don’t know what I would go and do in Turkey, but it would feel full circle to go and visit their home country.

For a long time, my best friend wanted to go to New Zealand.  I think she still wants to go, but the reality of being an adult and how expensive things are the time you’d have to take off from work to make that happen have pretty much shattered that dream.  However, after all the years of her talking about it and how awesome and beautiful it is, I would love to go.  I honestly would love to figure out a way to plan and afford to take her for her 35th birthday, but again travel stresses me out so much I’d probably have to hire a travel guide to avoid talking myself out of it.

Ever since I watched “P.S. I Love You” I’ve wanted to travel to Ireland.  It’s just such a beautiful country and truly looks like paradise. I’d also be happy with Scotland.  A year or so ago my YouTube algorithm randomly suggested I watch this hoof trimmer “The Hoof GP” and he puts a lot of ariel drone shots of the countryside in his videos, and it just looks so beautiful and peaceful.  Honestly the countryside of Ireland and Scotland I’ve seen remind me a lot of the country town I grew up in, but more beautiful and more exotic since it’s not in the United States.  Maybe that’s just a “the grass is always greener” mentality, but it really does look greener in Ireland and Scotland.  My brother and sister-in-law have joked about moving there if my brother can get a good enough job, and I told them if they do that, then they had better plan on taking me with them.

Realistically I would simply love to go anywhere, especially if expenses were paid and I didn’t have to plan the trip ahead of time and I just had to show up and follow an itinerary.  I’d even be happy with a trip to New York City, or to the eastern coast so I could visit Maine, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, or to the west coast so I could visit Washington and California.  Even just an all expenses paid trip so that I could visit my out of state friends that I never seem to be able to afford to visit.  I’m not difficult to please, I just want to experience as much as I can so that I can feel like my life was well lived and I didn’t miss out on anything.  That’s a tall order, and I recognize that, but ultimately I just don’t want to let any experience pass me by if I can help it.  So give me an all expenses paid trip to anywhere, really, and I’ll still find a way to make the most of it and appreciate the experience.

 

Question 44/424:  Do you give money or time to causes you believe in?  Do you have a favorite memory of giving?

I wish I could say I gave back to my community or to causes I believe in more than I do.  Unless you count the charity that I’ve given to the exes I’ve dated that I supported for multiple years at a time.  Doing that has not left me much fiscal space to give to anything else.

Usually around the holidays I try to give to various charities if I can.  I was really happy I was able to donate to Mari Copeny’s (“Little Miss Flint”) Christmas drive one year, and I try to donate a little bit to her causes when I can.  I am truly inspired by her and how she’s managed to speak out and stay vocal about the issues surrounding our city and trying to be a true asset to the community.  I also bought a copy of “Wonderful Women of the World” by Lauris Halse Anderson, partly because she wrote one of my favorite books, “Speak”, but also because she featured Mari Copeny as one of the Wonderful Women in her book.  It feels very powerful to have such a young woman speaking out and being noticed for her accomplishments and she started right in the same city I go to work in every day.

My boyfriend’s parents had a situation happen with their house where they were not able to live in their home, but the source of the problem was undetermined.  This resulted in their insurance company refusing to pay out or pay for additional testing and so they started a crowd funding account to help with their expenses and I of course donated to that and shared the information around to try and help them as much as I could.

When my sister died in a hit and run car accident, I tried to start a fundraiser to donate to a company that assists unhoused people.  At the time of my sister’s death, she was unhoused and the article that wrote about her death labeled her as “clearly transient”.  So, I wanted to try and raise funds and awareness for the unhoused community.  Unfortunately, that fundraiser didn’t go anywhere and I wound up being the only person who donated to it.

I’ve talked with a few friends about various community service things, like working at food banks or helping with park clean-ups.  Unfortunately, I’m a little too nervous to do those types of things on my own and it’s extremely difficult to coordinate busy schedules with people.

If you count being willing and helping to pay for things that help with a small community theater group, then I guess you could also say I’ve donated time and money there.  I try to go above and beyond for the theater group I’m a part of because I’m grateful to have the opportunity to perform after many years away from the stage.  I’ve offered to come early and stay late, to help build props and tear down curtains and seats, I’ve donated clothes and I’ve spent money I never asked for reimbursement on to help make the shows go smoother and to have options when it comes to props and costumes. Some of that feels self-serving though because I do those things so that this company can continue to put on shows so that I can continue to have opportunities to participate.

So, yeah, I may not be the most charitable person when it comes to organizations or volunteering in the most common ways, but I try to help people as often as I can.  I will help my friends and family as much as possible and will offer to pay their way if money is the only obstacle in their way from experiencing something that will bring them joy.  I don’t think twice about helping to cover someone’s meals or helping them feed their animals if they just don’t have enough money at the end of the month.  I will offer to come over and help people clean or organize their space if they’re feeling overwhelmed and I’m happy to do it.  I’ve offered people rides home, I offer advice whenever it’s asked for and will refer my friends to resources that could help them more than me if necessary.  Life is too short to not help people or to not be kind, and I just hope that if I’m ever in a position where I need help that the people in my life would be there for me like I’ve been there for them.