Travel… Embrace It Enthusiastically At Any Age

Medical professionals tell us that our most impressionable learning years are between the ages of one and three years.  It is in that early period of our lives that we absorb experiences and teachings without fear, or of any thought or contradiction. We accept with great enthusiasm things that we have been shown or taught.

The reason we don’t show any fear, or question, is of course, we don’t have any life experience at that early age to compare and question. Our young brain simply cannot “work it out”. It has nothing stored… it has no life experience.

So what goes wrong…where does the enthusiasm go?  Nothing goes “wrong”.   We just “grow up”.  We all have personalities that start developing in our infant years and continue through to the adult stages of our lives.

A slow start.  A true story. I was born into a poor working class environment in a town close to London, England.  At the age of two, due to my mother becoming ill and unable to care for me, I was put into the care of a “Legal Guardian”, a form of adoption.  I can remember the day I was “handed over” as if it were yesterday.  At two I had no real idea of what was going on, except to say, a lot of new faces appeared and people paid me attention. It was some years later that I met my mother and father again, but never lived with them.

Things didn’t start falling into place until a few years later when I realized that my situation was different, my background was different.  I would hear comments such as “it’s a pity, he’s such a nice boy’” and “what will become of him.”

At the age of eleven, I decided that I was not going to stay in England.  As loving and caring as my new family was, my young gut feeling told me I needed to make a change.  Yes, at eleven, I already didn’t like what was becoming my life.

I began looking at world maps and wondered what it would be like to visit Asia, Africa, South America.  At school, my favourite class was geography and as luck would have it, an Australian geography teacher from Brisbane took up a post at my school. Little did I know… that a teacher with his black and white home-made movies which he’d brought with him from Oz, showing the fantastic scale and lifestyle of his country, laid the foundation of my dream to live in Australia.  Even though I wasn’t happy, my enthusiasm to change my situation and see the world never wavered.  At age fifteen I knew I wanted to live in Australia and by age twenty-two, here I was.

So what is the point of my life story; the point is that nothing was ever achieved without enthusiasm and determination.  When I said to that wonderful Australian teacher, “I think I would like to live in Australia,” in true Aussie style, he remarked, “Don’t just think about it, sport…just bloody do it.”

That teacher taught me something else (apart from swear words). The three words that control our growth not only in world travel but in life in general are: fear, doubt and worry.  As he pointed out, “it’s not easy but if you can control those three emotions with enthusiasm, the world’s your bloody oyster..mate!”

As I have matured, I have come to the realisation; it doesn’t matter where you start in life, it’s where you finish, and along the way adding value to the lives of others without personal gain. In retrospect I can thank a poor start for giving me the strength to move forward, as the founder of AIV Group Travel and the many contacts that I make.

It’s clear we all have a story.

Doug Edwards Bio:

In the 80s and 90s I ran a Singles Adventure Club in Melbourne, taking the members around a variety of interstate and intrastate getaways.

Lots of friends were made over the years.  I organised regular cocktail parties, dinner parties, and exciting sailing and hot-air ballooning trips, to name a few. I am a travelling man. I have vacationed as a family unit, as a couple, in a group, and alone. Ending up in a hotel alone is the main reason I no longer wish to go solo. Now I am the Owner and Operator of All Inclusive Vacations, a global travel club arranging functions and group travel for people over the ages of 45 or 50.

You can find Doug Edward’s all inclusive travel vacations here and join his Facebook page.

Sonia Marsh Says: 

I cannot imagine what it must have been like for you being a child and hearing adults say, “it’s a pity, he’s such a nice boy” and “what will become of him.”  It amazes me how we can be influenced by adults, including our teachers and mentors. I also love what your Australian teacher said to you,

The three words that control our growth not only in world travel but in life in general are: fear, doubt and worry.  As he pointed out, “it’s not easy but if you can control those three emotions with enthusiasm, the world’s your bloody oyster..mate!”

Thankfully your Australian teacher had such a positive impact on your life.

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