Curated Experiences

Someone told me they had just returned from a trip, and my natural response was, “oh, cool, where did you go?” I get excited to hear about people’s travel experiences. I was expecting a great response. However, they started talking about checking off their bucket list. I hear the term “bucket list” a lot. Don’t get me wrong–there’s nothing wrong with a bucket list. However, a bucket list is not how I describe my travel adventures. When I travel, I am not checking boxes like walking through the grocery aisle with a list looking for milk and bread. It has nothing to do with things I must do before–fill in the blank. Don’t get me wrong; I understand lists better than most. Since I learned to draw a box, I have been checking boxes and keeping track of things. I could have invented the Franklin Planner. However, I do not spend my time reading through travel blogs, magazines, and articles and listening to other fellow travelers’ stories to find things to add to a wish/bucket list. Ok, I don’t always know what’s going to be the next trip. However, I know that I have a feeling compelling me to act. Intuition tells me I need to make a journey at a specific time and experience certain things or open myself to a new experience. My research focuses on maximizing the experiences; it’s about hearing and learning about those things I can connect with personally.

I look at travel as curated life experiences. There are several questions I pose to myself before any trip, event, outing, or excursion. What is my purpose for going? What experiences do I want to have? How do I want to connect with the people I encounter? How do I want to show up? What will I do to help me walk away with a feeling that I have been there, a sense of living there, and of being present? The feeling of living in a place provides a more profound and longer-lasting impression than saying I visited somewhere. How do I create that vivid picture that tells the story of where I have been? As I type, it reminds me of when I was traveling to a convention, and someone said oh, you must like this place. Does it remind you of your recent travels?

The person was referring to a large casino hotel mimicking something of grandeur. I said no, actually, it does not. It does not look or feel like the real thing I had experienced. I have stayed in an actual palace made of marble where you have to take a boat that brings you to a marble dock that leads up a marble walkway to the front entrance, and rose petals fall from above as you enter the threshold. I still remember the fragrance of the cup of tea I had while I waited for a staff member to return my passport after checking me in. I remember the different hues of color the houses along the lake changed as the sun began to set. I remember the texture and warmth of the marble railing in my hands as I stood on the patio, watching the last boat dock. I remember every experience, every adventure up to and past that moment. That, for me, is curating my life experiences.