Time Travel: Forming Family Traditions in Jamaica, 1998
Building value systems as teenagers on Caribbean adventures with our parents.
By Gray Shealy, Commentary by Erin Washington
TRAVEL JOURNAL: A SHORT PODCAST
In this 10 minute chat, Erin and I talk about going to the Caribbean as teenagers, and how those parental choices ultimately formed who we are as travellers and adults to this day. We start with a short narrative journal reading as my family arrives at the spectacular Jamaica Inn in 1998, a place my parents had honeymooned and visited multiple times prior to having children. But due to a no-child-under-12 policy, the place was only a myth to us until this moment. The visit set up a new tradition that we carried through the remainder of our adolescence and time as young adults, sealing cherished memories for all that joined us on these trips. Likewise, Erin talks about her first experiences going to the Caribbean with her family – from being exposed to new cultures as an impressionable youth, to learning how to research hotels and pack – and we catch a glimpse of the budding traveller that now advises us so astutely today.
Listen to the story here:
STAY
Jamaica Inn, Ocho Rios, Jamaica
My mom in the White Suite, 20 years later. At right: acrylic painting of The Jamaica Inn by G. Shealy
Artwork and photos by: Syllogi
Leaving a travel legacy: I started writing a journal of my travels when I was a teenager. From my first trip overseas to today (where I have travelled to over 100 countries and territories), listen and watch as I open up these writings for the first time in years and re-live the experiences that helped shape my travel legacy. Travel back in time with us in each edition as we reminisce upon a past adventure.
