Travel & Perspectives

Michael Ward
Aug 26, 2017 · 2 min read

As I sit and write this, I am 28,000 feet above what is probably New Mexico. I’m not quite sure. It’s a bit cloudy as I look at the window, but I can see the sprawling reddish orange desert. It’s a beautiful view. One that makes you feel small. The kind of view I chase.

I’m heading to Arizona this weekend and it’s the first time I have been on an airplane in way too long. Well, maybe like seven months, but way too long for me at least. There’s something special about being up here.

I guess you could call what I’m going on a “vacation”. I’ll eat some good food and maybe sneak in a round or two of golf, but more than anything, I’m going to connect with my grandparents. They are 72 & 69. Young enough to get around fine, crack jokes, and hit the dance floor at my wedding. On the other hand, old enough to have experienced a lifetime of well…life.

More specifically, I’m going to interview them and hear the answers to questions that I have never asked. Quite possibly questions nobody in my family has ever asked. What I really want to take away is the realization that they were young once. That these wise souls were once green with fear and doubt and dreams and ambition just like me.

I want my daughter to grow up some day and have the opportunity to know who they were and what they were like, not just their names. That at one point, they too were 25 and having the right answer to many of life’s tribulations wasn’t always the case. Hopefully this trip will do that. Expose that you don’t just wake up an authoritative figure. You figure it out through experience. Through pain and love and joy and vulnerability. That’s what I want to tap into.

Sometimes I think I’m crazy, but I can’t explain it. I have a relationship with these airplanes. These types of interactions. The airports. The nameless faces and this incredible view.

Maybe it’s cause my parents put me on a plane before I could walk and flew me all over the world. Maybe it’s because when you have family nowhere close, the only way to see them is between two wings. Or maybe I’m just chasing some ghost that you can never really catch. I’m not really sure. I’m not sure it really matters.

It’s who I am. It’s in my blood. My soul. It’s a romantic experience. An emotional one.

That’s why I get on these airplanes. Why I seek this view. Why I chase these feelings and these interactions.

So that I can get to the place that allows me to ask these questions and hear their answers. So I can see places many never will. So someday when I’m the one who is 72 and still getting around, maybe my answers too will have meaning and impact and most importantly, be rooted in experience not speculation.

That’s why I chase this feeling. Chase that ghost.

No matter where it leads me.

Michael

High Above the Southwest

08/25/2017

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Michael Ward

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Im a Dad, Husband, Travel Enthusiast, LSU Fan, Aspiring Entrepreneur, & Inconsistently Consistent 7 Handicap who likes writing and a nice glass of bourbon.