See The World Before You Leave It

by Tim Larison

Recently I was planning an international trip for a client of mine and she said “this is one place I want to see before I die.” She was in her 30’s in fine health, yet had a sense that we all have only so much time to pursue our dreams in this life.

The trip of a lifetime for me was our Italy trip in May 2006 (that’s me to the left with Anne and our sons Andrew and Josh at a familiar site in Rome). I am Italian and I always wanted to see Italy, which we did on my 50th birthday. My parents, who speak Italian fluently and had their parents immigrate to the U.S. from Italy, never visited Italy and are at an age now where International travel isn’t practical. “We wish we had visited Italy when we were younger,” my Mom recently told me.

Do you have a trip you have always wanted to take? I encourage you to consider taking that trip in 2007. Our two week Italy and Mediterranean cruise did stretch our budget a bit, but it was worth every penny as I will never forget the many fascinating sights we saw and the people we met. The memories from that trip will last a lifetime.

A travel agent friend of mine has a slogan on her business card, “See The World Before You Leave It” I believe in this motto, too. There are so many more interesting places in the World I want to visit. As 2006 draws to a close I’m exploring possibilities for another “dream” trip for my family in the summer of 2007!