Summer vacation is always the time of year to dive headfirst into a new adventure. A two-week trip to the beach with the kids, a weekend with an SO to the mountains or a solo hiking trip are just the beginning. The days are long and entire afternoons are spent exploring and playing pretend in the backyard. Maybe it’s a trip to a deserted island via a reading of The Swiss Family Robinson for the first time as a part of a summer reading project, or perhaps a journey to California while watching Finding Dory.
This summer especially we have been bit hard by the adventure bug with the Summer Olympics in Brazil (that was not a Zika joke.) We will happily watch the opening ceremony while the citizens of Rio show the world what they’re made of. Athletes around the globe will fly their flags and wear their national pride on their sleeves. We will see champions from all over, hear languages we don’t speak and maybe even learn the name of a country of which we have no prior knowledge.
Sometimes it seems like the world is getting smaller every day. It’s easier to travel—though increasingly more expensive—and with all the various media outlets including Snapchat and Instagram, we are constantly given glimpses of life we have never seen before. But with all this access comes the realization that we have so much to see for ourselves during our lives. A kid’s room full of maps and modes of transportation can jumpstart a life of wondering what this world has to offer.