I have always always always wanted to travel the world. When I was in 6th grade I had a teacher (Miss Vincent) that had traveled all over Europe and brought in pictures and money and other things she had from her trips. Touching things that were actually in Europe would send me on a mid-day mental excursion to Rome or Venice. I can remember her talking about going to a nude beach with her parents. We all squealed with 12 year old voices. That year was a monumental year for me in many ways, but it sealed the deal as far as increasing my desperate desire to travel the world.
I was fascinated with Italy. I would even check out Italian language books from the library as an elementary school kid. That year, my mom's boss went on a trip to Italy and asked me what I would like as a souvenir. After thinking, I told her I wanted dirt. Yep, from the ground. My plan at the time was to pour it on the ground and walk on it and close my eyes and pretend I was walking the streets of Milan. (If Milan had dirt streets.) But after she showed up with a little purple container of sand, I couldn't do it. I couldn't dream of wasting that precious earth on a one-time shot. So I kept it. Every once in a while I would open it up and smell it with my eyes closed. It smelled like... well, sand. But it
definitely smelled like different sand than San Diego or LA and since that was about as far I had traveled in my life up to that point, that was good enough for me.
I studied French in school since Italian wasn't available and developed a passion for France. I excelled at the language and the studies and even took to dreaming in French. After I left Mesa, I had to suspend my studies, but I knew I was going to keep it. And for the most part, I have.
Years passed by and periodically someone would show up with dirt from some exotic vacation they took and place it on my mom's desk at work. If I heard that a friend was going on a road trip, I would ask them to pick me up some from somewhere cool. It sort of snowballed and I now have a collection of dirt from all over the world. I would say 70 or so different places. I've never ever spread one out on the ground. Thank God because apparently it is totally illegal and bad for the earth. But I do have them all in sealed glass containers that I periodically open up and smell. They are all 100% different from each other. You would not believe the rainbow of dirt on this earth. Amazing.
Well, I am extremely proud to announce: I will be collecting my OWN dirt in EUROPE in about 12 days. TWELVE STINKING DAYS! I've done a lot of amazing things in my life. I've been married, birthed three children, and as terrible as it sounds I have never been this excited. The others also held fear, so they go down a notch. This is utterly and wholly, 100 % me. Something Lisa the Person has always wanted. The second I clicked "confirm and continue" on the airlines web page, I cried like a baby. Like a sobbing, snot-soaked baby. A baby that is conspiring to make her dreams come true!
