Follow Your Hart

What if someone told you that you could be more beautiful than you ever imagined, get attention from every one who sees you and be the envy of those who knew you before your transformaton. The only catch would be that you’d die the next day. I doubt many people would agree to that. But every day, millions of catepillars take the offer and magically transform into butterflies. Some of these butterflies only live for one day I was told. Nature’s cruel joke on them.

When I’m in my hometown, Columbus, Ohio, I love going to the Franklin Park Conservatory. A sprawling park and conservatory, it contains many beautiful plants and fauna from around the world, including an extensive bonzai tree exhibit. But the most popular part of the conservatory is the butterfly exhibit. Each day, the conservatory releases new butterflies to fly in the controlled space. You can’t help but be inspired by it and realize how beautiful the simplest creatures can be. (more…)

Posing alongside a few young police cadets.

Personal travel journal excerpt, May 2010, Vladivostok, Russia

Prior to our arrival in Vladivostok, we heard all sorts of rumors and NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Service) reports that Vladivostok may be a hostile place for US Navy Sailors and US Marines, particularly those of African and African-American descent. As the person who puts together the USS Blue Ridge’s (LCC 19) port guides (these are guides I create in Adobe In Design that give Sailors and Marines onboard an idea of what to do and where to go for the ports we visit), I also found reports about Russia’s negative attitude towards persons of color. Thus, I expected the worse when it came to our visit to this Far-Eastern Asian part of the Russian nation. (more…)

When I was home in Columbus, Ohio during Christmas, I rummaged through some of the boxes I have at my mom’s house. I was in the basement looking at old photographs (from the late 90′s, early 00′s, when we use to use film and print pictures. And for those of you born after I graduated high school, I’m referring to the 1990′s and 2000′s not the 1890′s and 1900′s.) and finding souvenirs I purchased on trips. Souvenirs that I had long forgotten about but would make great additions my current collections. It then dawned on me that I collect too many types of souvenirs.

From foreign currency to hat pins, magnets to shot glasses, coffee mugs to postcards, my room is filled with souvenirs from my travels. I have a walking cane from a village in Hue, Vietnam that makes me look like I’m related to Huggy Bear. I have a Ziplock bag full of foreign coins that if added up probably wouldn’t be enough to buy a latte from Starbucks. A miniature Venetian carnival mask and Malaysian welcoming necklaces. When will I ever need a miniature Venetian carnival mask? Unless I return from a trip to Papua New Guinea with my head intact but shrunken, I can’t possibly reason why I needed to have a miniature mask.

Shopping is impulsive and addictive enough. That seems to get magnified when we are on vacations. Even if we’re buying for others. When I went to mom’s house, I expected to find a refrigerator full of my postcards and magnets; the coffee table with Russian Matryoshka dolls, Australian boomerangs, Roman Colosseum sculptures and a Borneo blowgun on top. I found none of it. It was all in a box… just like my own souvenirs were in. Why do we feel the instinct to buy every little trinket we can when we travel?

I ask myself and you that, but I know how much I love my trinkets. I simply wish I could narrow my own collection to one thing. Here are my favorite things to collect. Which should I stick to?

(not pictured: magnets)

Shot glassed from places I've been to around the world.

I recently got in the expensive habit of collecting Starbucks city/country mugs.

I prefer the smaller mugs when possible. Same price, double the pleasure.

Who doesn't love cash?

I love my flag pins. The pins on your right are called "friendship pins." We give those out on the ship when we visit foreign ports. I buy pins wherever I go.

What about you? What type of souvenirs do you collect? Do you have things you must buy when you travel?