A Love Letter To The Places I’ve Been

I originally wrote this piece on the morning of December 8th, 2021.

Two days after returning home from Puerto Rico. But the dreaded post trip letdown arrived before the flight home from San Juan touched down at JFK. I had listened to my friend Wendy Harrop's podcast, “Love, Life and Other Conversations” earlier that morning. And she and her friend/co-host Jane Webster were seeking love letters for their podcast. But I didn't have a love letter to submit. At least not one in the traditional sense of love, between one thing and another.

As I sat at my desk that morning, I opened up a blank Google Doc and started to type. I sent in my email and this piece was left in the vault untouched.

As my forthcoming trip to Italy gets closer to happening, this felt like the right moment to look back at the places I've been.

Without further ado:

I would love to share my love letter...

I know this is unusual, but the following love letter isn’t directed to a person.

It’s for all the places that I’ve been to.

As I sat at JFK Airport last Thursday morning, I looked out the window of Terminal 2 and saw the planes lined up on the tarmac prior to my flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico beginning to board. I began to think of all the times I had been in this position before.

Christmas morning for me, happening time and again. 

The wheels retract back and the flight soars in the sky. The glances out the windows are the sign that something wonderful is about to happen. As the flight lands, a big smile takes over my face. I've arrived somewhere that I've not been before.

Each place I've been to has left it's own impression on me. Lingering on well past the particular trip's end.

From putting both feet down at Kilometer Zero in the Puerta del Sol in Madrid, to marveling at the Barcelona skyline in Gaudi's Parc Guell. The sweeping Cliffs of Moher in a driving rainstorm and the azulejo covered buildings all across Portugal. The sun rising over each of the islands in the Southern Caribbean and the deep blue Mediterranean Sea overlooking the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, France.  La Tour Eiffel shimmering in the night's sky and the sunsets over Lake Ontario and Lake Michigan. Soaring high in the skies above Teotihuacan, a sunset cruise on the River Thames and family visits to Ecuador & Cuba. 

A small sampling of the images taken during my travels in just under a decade. From Paris to Mexico City, Toronto, Madrid, San Francisco, Nice and the Cliffs of Moher.

All of these moments reveal a love of traveling. The longest lasting relationship that I've ever had.

A love that only grows with the passage of time. A love that will never grow old.