So, I just got back from a business trip to the East Coast… DC, Virginia, and Maryland.

AND… it was my first time — EVER!

You can read about the “business” part of the trip HERE. However, this post is more on the general experience itself -and- the experience of traveling with a 3 year old for the 1st time in an airplane.

First… memories from Snapchat

So… in this trip, Nathan grew up… A LOT. Like, he matured.

Flying was the hardest part because Nate was TERRIFIED about being up so high. During the 2nd take off coming home, he squeezed the life out of my fingers. Poor kiddo.

All in all though, this blog post will be short because I took a lot of video that I’m hoping to drop as a post of its own. I guess the gist of this post really is that… I was in awe of DC. Virginia was fun. Maryland was beautiful.

I got to meet up at my business partner’s home and finally try Maryland Crab Cakes with Old Bay. The families meshed well. Traveling required a lot of patience from Nathan and he stepped up to the plate. Also, super helpful, was both grandmothers came along for the trip and were godsends in their own rights in helping tame the boy during his three year old moments.

There was a moment I wanted to share, despite the disjointed content in this post.

I touched the Washington Memorial for a few seconds. Then, rolled my kiddo in his stroller toward the side where there were seats.

I sat there and cried in gratitude, awe, and a bit of heartbreak for our nation.

I thought to myself, “I sure hope all this is here when Nathan grows up.” Our nation is supposed to be the UNITED States. Yet, recently, I fear we’ve gone about things all wrong… trumping tolerance, diversity, and all that in a way that causes divergence rather than convergence.

In many countries with diverse backgrounds, diversity doesn’t define them… their commonalities do. I found this as a theme in my business trip as I was a keynote and breakout speaker for a conference. The physical therapy profession is better off by uniting over what is agreed upon, rather than fighting over disagreements that are shallower than skin deep.

And… I thought to myself how this country used to be known as “the melting pot.” Well… in a melting pot, we don’t identify individual substances… we mix them all in together.

TOGETHER.

I hope we can get back to that… rather than picking pieces from and out of the pot, creating discord while we do it. I hope, that… is still around when Nate grows up. I hope to teach him that, too.

I have a lot more thoughts to follow… but really, those thoughts are for me 🙂  … for now.