Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Passport to Art: High School Travel

I have two more double-page spreads in my altered book, Passport to Art, to share today. The book, created via Bernice's online class, has allowed me to reflect on all the different types of travels and the various trips I have taken in my life.  This page, based on Prompt 23 about becoming an adult, covers the various trips I took in high school. I used black gesso to cover most everything on the page (except for the map and the legend), journaled in white sharpie and added lots of cut-out images from my stash.  The journaling reads "I had a lot of freedom to travel when I was in high school, and it helped me develop into an adult. I traveled with the debate team to tournaments all over the state and to several other states.  I became friends with Sara, who lived in Berkeley, and I often flew up to visit her. It's hard to imagine my parents allowed to to do this so often on my own but I'm glad they did." 
Reflecting back on this period in my life, I now realize how mature I must have been as a high school kid. I earned money babysitting and whenever I saved up $48 (the roundtrip cost for the one hour trip from southern California to northern California), I would book a flight to spend the weekend 350 miles from home! 
These pages are based on prompt 19 which asked "What things had to come to an end so that something new could begin?" After some thought, I wrote about the trips we took within in the U.S. when Henry was playing all-star baseball. I covered over the entire page with cream colored acrylic paint, added maps of the relevant areas, three photos from my collage sheets, some lettering and a little doodling to complete the page.
 The journaling reads "Good-bye Europe . . . Hello Cooperstown!"  The family agreed to give up European travel for a few summers when Henry was aged 10-12, so the he could play All Star baseball. When he was 12, the team also traveled to Cooperstown, N.Y. The whole family went along, and we added visits to New York City, Boston, and Washington, D.C.  A few summers later, Henry and I traveled to Sacramento, California when the All-Stars made the state tournament." 
One of the interesting parallels between these two spreads is that the latter spread is a bit about Henry's high school travel experiences, but these were trips he took with the family in tow.  As I think about it, he has taken a few trips on his own in high school without us (to soccer and baseball tournaments in the greater Bay Area with his team; to Dallas, Texas with his soccer team; and, recently, to Costa Rica with some fellow students and a couple of teachers). It makes me wonder how much travel people did on their own as high school students and how much you let (or would let) your kids travel at this age without you?  I'd love to hear your thoughts!
I've got a few more completed pages to share tomorrow and some new photography challenge posts for the weekend, so come on back to check those out.

11 comments:

Amy said...

Up until extremely recently, air travel within and without of Australia has been prohibitively expensive - therefore I would say very few Australians would travel interstate all that often as teenagers. We now have access to cheaper flights and some are under $100 ... whereas they all would have been $500+ previously. Don't get me started on the cost of an international flight ...... usually $2500+ per person to get to Europe unless you can find super fantastic deals.

Sian said...

I've been really enjoying your travel pages not just because of the wonderful art, but also because I can feel I think that we share a similar happy nostalgia for the travelling we have done in the past and a lust for more travel in the future!

Irene said...

The only trip I took my high school days was a senior trip to Monterrey, Mexico. Even though it was all girls and we were escorted by nuns, I had a blast. (I think we were the original "Girls Gone Wild".) As for my boys they have traveled more with the high school band, even took a cruise to Mexico where they performed on the ship.

scrappyjacky said...

The only trips I remember taking as a teenager were with the girl guides!!

Melissa said...

Great pages - this journal is going to be such a treasure!

I traveled a few times with school groups during high school (academic decathlon, drama), but it wasn't 'til my senior year when I took my first road trip from Texas to Mississippi all on my own over spring break.

Deb @ PaperTurtle said...

LOVE your pages, Rinda.

When I was in high school there really weren't opportunities for me to travel, but Carrie sure did. She traveled a lot with marching band, and once to Seattle with her journalism class. I later learned that her Seattle trip was basically a free-for-all with little to no adult supervision. Needless to say, she had a great time! ;o)

alexa said...

I really enjoy your art journalling pages - I like the mixture of paint and maps and photos and writing … Tis class has clearly let you do lots of,reflecting on your younger self and your life.

Sandie said...

Your journal is so full of stories Rinda - it is a lovely way of telling them. It is great when your parents trust you to travel, like yours did.

Carola Bartz said...

I did three trips during high school (high school starts with 5th grade in Germany) and the first trip was in 7th grade to an island off the coast of the Netherlands. All of us were terribly homesick... My daughter had her first trip without us this spring (9th grade) to LA with her choir. I was confident that she would be doing fine since we had travelled with her so much, both in the States and international. And of course she did fine. I think nowadays parents are so much more fearful and don't let their kids do so very much on their own. I think they have a harder time gaining independence. It has always been my goal for my daughter to be independent, and she definitely is on her way.
BTW, I love both of your spreads, they look very balanced.

Unknown said...

You are really going to appreciate this journal in years to come. So many memories and reflections in one book.

Anonymous said...

Oh boy, trying to remember back all those years. I think there was only 1 trip and it was with the church's young people's group to Washington DC. There were weekend Guide camps but I wouldn't count them as travel. I've been so enjoying looking at the pages you've done for this book.