Help Give My Mom the Vacation She Deserves!

Catherine Lea Start Date: Apr 25, 2019 - End Date: Apr 24, 2020
  • New Zealand

My Travel Story

by: Catherine Lea Start Date: Apr 25, 2019 - End Date: Apr 24, 2020
I want to say that this trip is about furthering my education, connecting me to nature, furthering my business career, or something so earth-shatteringly important that they're sure to make a new Marvel superhero based off of my accomplishments here. But this trip is about something that is more important to me than all of that - my mom.

My mom has three passions in life: penguins, Lord of the Rings, and being a good mother. And she's pretty great about all three of them. She is my best friend, number one supporter, and has been through and survived so much in her lifetime. She is one of the strongest women that I know. She's busy as Hell, between her job and her garden and her husband and her financial responsibilities and three children. But she always makes time to visit the zoo with me to see the penguins and always always always makes time once a year to marathon the Lord of the Rings movies with me (did you think I was joking about being passionate about them? The Hobbit was my bedtime story as a kid!). 

She's talked about going to New Zealand several times, but it's always in this wistful, far off away, as if she believes she'll never get there. All I want to do is give my mom a chance to visit Hobbiton, meet some penguins, and make the long walk to Mordor. She deserves it. I don't even think my mom has left the country since immigrating here from Thailand as a child. I can't even remember the last time she had a real, actual vacation. There is no one I know that is more deserving of a chance to see the world - both the real world and the fictional one she's immersed herself in since long before she was my age.
  • New Zealand