A Traveling Rite of Passage

As I write this my daughter is on a bus to the Eastern Cape on a school trip and my son is flying back from Sweden, where he has been on holiday on his own, for the last two weeks. Just over a year ago, I was on the back of an elephant in the jungle of the Golden Triangle, in the north of Thailand when it occurred to me that family holidays as we knew them were coming to an end. My daughter had been reluctant to come away with us then. She had been on exchange to Canada earlier that year and had a taste for hitting out on her own. My son was bemoaning the fact that there would probably not be anyone his age on that holiday. All in all, though, it turned out to be a great holiday. Besides the elephant trekking, we visited the Tiger Temple, and all got our PADI open-water diving licences.

And so here we are with them taking turns to leave the nest and giving me the opportunity to bond with one and then the other (or so I thought).  While my daughter has her exchange to Canada and her service trip to Thailand behind her, it is the first time that my son has been so far away from home by himself, for this length of time.  I think in many ways this trip has been a rite of passage for him. He has changed so much physically and emotionally over the past year, that it feels appropriate that we should mark it somehow.

He had to deal with the disappointment of not leaving as planned when we arrived at the check-in counter to discover that the UK visa he had would not allow him to travel without one of his parents, even though he would only be in transit. There was nothing for us to do but return home with the hope that we would be able to make a plan in the morning. He put on a brave face but I could see the disappointment.  

Thankfully we managed to get him onto another flight via Amsterdam the next night (and he didn't need a visa to use their airport!). As it happened, it did work out for the best (as mother said it would) as the KLM flight was more convenient.

By all accounts he seems to have had a wonderful time. It is hard to tell how much he has missed us since his communication is limited to one word, and at times one letter: ‘Y’ (why) or ‘K’ (okay). Our children have been travelling since they were babies and I believe that after every trip they have grown from the stimulation, the exposure to different cultures and the opportunity to leave home comforts and deal with change. I am hoping for a more detailed account and eager to see what difference this trip has made.