My Heart is with Istanbul

I am extremely saddened by the news of yet another bombing in a place I have visited and loved. Istanbul is one of my favorite cities, even though I only had a few short hours to explore the city.

I have always been a history buff, and one of the first places I had ever put on my travel bucket list was the Hagia Sophia. Both the city and the mosque are significant as the crossroads of Christianity and Islam, of Asia and Europe, a pinnacle of architecture from the Byzantine era until today. I was so excited to finally see the mosaic of the emperor, Justinian, in person. I cannot explain how happy I was to wander the streets and see ancient roman ruins just sitting there, a part of the urban fabric, to see the beautiful mixture of past and present built into the city's form.

As a City Planner, I also absolutely loved the transit system of light rail and streetcars that was so easy to navigate throughout the city. Attaturk International Airport, the subject of today's attacks, actually has a rail line that takes you from the airport directly to the City Center, near the Grand Bazaar. I have raved about this feature to everyone who ever mentioned of Istanbul within my earshot. And now, within the past year alone, there have been attacks on rail lines, in the plaza between the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque (where I am standing in the photo below), and the airport.

I wish things like this could stop. I wish evil people - or rather, people who wish to hurt others - didn't exist in this world. I wish we could live and let live in a world so diverse and so full of different beautiful cultures and religions and lifestyles. But this kind of danger is a risk we have to take if we want to see the world. And frankly, it's a risk we take each time we step outside our front door, even within the U.S. as the Orlando shootings have reminded us.

I am not sure that I would go to Istanbul if my trip were happening this year instead of in 2014, especially since I went alone. But the idea that this fear of terrorist activities is stunting national economies, preventing people from traveling, and leaving magnificent historic places destitute of people just breaks my heart. That is what terrorists want. They want to use that fear to further their agendas. I know we can't let them win, but I don't know how to balance resilience with the desire to stay safe. I just don't know how to do my part to make things better, as much as I wish I could. But for now, my heart is with Istanbul on this tragic day.

Changing the World

Travel has such a power to inspire and motivate you to be better and to do something bigger with your life. It's really difficult to explain since it's not a tangible feeling. When you travel, it becomes easier to see how big and diverse the world is. For me, it just makes me want to do something more with my life. And visiting places like Australia where there are tons of expatriates on working holiday visas for a year or two at a time really makes me want to live abroad.

I want to change the world. I'm not exactly sure how I can attempt to accomplish that just yet, but I do know that I am not going to do it by living in Utah and sitting in an office all week long. I think traveling as much as I possibly can has given me many ideas and taught me a lot about both myself and my place in this world, although I think I need to eventually take things a step further and take greater action one day soon.

There are many renditions of the quote, "Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher" (Oprah). I believe a lot of people who are driven, the movers and shakers in the world, are travelers and live in bigger cities. I want to be where they are so I can be inspired. I have traveled to find adventure. I have traveled to attend conferences and further my learning and networking experiences. I have traveled to be where history has and will be happening. And because of these things, I have rubbed shoulders with some of the greatest people in the world from successful lawyers and doctors to world renown business owners like Miki Agrawal, founder of Thinx underwear. I am meeting and exchanging ideas and words with these amazing people, and I need to find a way to do something more about it.

It's easy enough to say that I have a wonderful job I enjoy that is enough to support my lifestyle and pay the bills and affords me the work schedule (Fridays off!) and time off to travel a good deal, so why would I want to leave? But I also don't want to get comfortable and complacent in this easy, simple life so that I forget to do more and to be better. Recently, I was able to travel to Phoenix for the National Planning Conference and ended up getting involved in the International Division of the American Planning Association. Being able to participate in the division in the small role of acting secretary has gotten me SO excited about international planning. I mean, the United Nations is hosting Habitat 3 in Quito, Ecuador this fall and is deciding on the New Urban Agenda. My experience and passion for travel has led to this opportunity and has gotten me so excited about things like Habitat 3, things that actually will change the world. And for me, travel is the key to finding people and opportunities to accomplish something more with my life.

Sunrises and Sunsets

Mather Point, Grand Canyon sunrise - April 1, 2016

The sun is indiscriminate. For every moment it is rising for some people, for some place in this world, and it is setting for some people, for some place in this world. It does not care if we see it or not. It does not care where we are or who we are. It does not care if clouds or mountains obstruct it's view. It continues on, consistent, exact, never changing in a lifetime or ten.

The sun does not change. It is indifferent to the lives (or lack thereof) of the people it sustains. The sun is always there, no matter what. If we want to change our relationship to the sun, we have to be the ones to change it. It is our duty to position ourselves, to travel to receive the light. And even then, mother nature is also indiscriminate. She might not cooperate. But the least we can do is decide where we we'll experience the sun. If I want to change my relationship to the sun, I can travel to India, I can visit to the Grand Canyon and be inspired by a new view of it.

A new experience of the same things we've known our entire lives have the most potential to inspire and spark something within us. And what is more consistent in our lives than the sun? Even the air we breathe changes from day to day. But not the sun. You could be fifty yards from a specific place in this world and your view of the sun, the experience you have with it can change in that fifty yards. Isn't that potential exiting? Potential for something constant, consistent, so much the same in our lives to appear different and to feel different to us. That's all it takes to make or break a life, at least for a moment.