In March of 2020 I was busy rerouting clients and getting them home in order to beat the travel bans. Once clients were home, it was time to start to postpone upcoming trips. As the travel delays continued, more and more trips were cancelled and postponed until there were no trips left to work on.
It was weird having no trips to plan. I wasn't sure what to do with myself. I dove into education, learning about new destinations and strengthened relationships with suppliers. That lasted a while, but I still felt a bit lost and if I felt lost, I can only imagine how others who were alone felt.
My volunteer relationship with a senior community presented an opportunity to help connect with seniors. I started to call people from the senior center that I knew and help them access Zoom or Facetime. Slowly, one at a time, they were each able to gain access independently. Once a few people were online, I invited them to join a weekly chat session along with hosting a friendly game of bingo. Bringing everyone together gave me so much joy. We shared stories, showed each other our masks, discussed how we were getting food and were there for one another. We all felt a sense of belonging to a community and were thankful for a way to stay connected.
I loved seeing the seniors each week and, of course, I love to talk about travel so I decided to host a 'Virtual Vacation'. I took everyone on a journey. We looked at pictures, discussed food and culture and learned about history. Participants shared stories and spoke of vacations they took with their families and friends in the past. Before we knew it, we had visited London, Rome, Venice, Amalfi, Athens, Mykonos and more!
Although I wish I could be planning actual trips, I will settle for planning virtual trips until it is safe to travel.
In due time we will travel again, until then, let's continue to dream!
It was weird having no trips to plan. I wasn't sure what to do with myself. I dove into education, learning about new destinations and strengthened relationships with suppliers. That lasted a while, but I still felt a bit lost and if I felt lost, I can only imagine how others who were alone felt.
My volunteer relationship with a senior community presented an opportunity to help connect with seniors. I started to call people from the senior center that I knew and help them access Zoom or Facetime. Slowly, one at a time, they were each able to gain access independently. Once a few people were online, I invited them to join a weekly chat session along with hosting a friendly game of bingo. Bringing everyone together gave me so much joy. We shared stories, showed each other our masks, discussed how we were getting food and were there for one another. We all felt a sense of belonging to a community and were thankful for a way to stay connected.
I loved seeing the seniors each week and, of course, I love to talk about travel so I decided to host a 'Virtual Vacation'. I took everyone on a journey. We looked at pictures, discussed food and culture and learned about history. Participants shared stories and spoke of vacations they took with their families and friends in the past. Before we knew it, we had visited London, Rome, Venice, Amalfi, Athens, Mykonos and more!
Although I wish I could be planning actual trips, I will settle for planning virtual trips until it is safe to travel.
In due time we will travel again, until then, let's continue to dream!
