I love to travel. However, because of the pandemic I had to change most of last year’s travel plans, and I’ll be deferring future travel until it’s safe to do so. Although I can’t wait to get on the road again, there’s nothing to stop us from taking an imaginary road trip in the meantime!
When I got the idea about taking an imaginary road trip, the first thing that popped up in my Google search was Jason Reynolds, who is the seventh National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. First of all, who knew there was such a thing, and how cool is that. Second, it turns out Mr. Reynolds proposes the idea of just such a trip! In one of his “Write. Right. Rite.” videos, he puts forth the imaginary road trip challenge:
- Pick a person you admire – why did you select this person to go on the trip with you?
- Describe the best of the trip with this person.
- Describe what the worst part of the trip would be with this person.
I decided to add a few elements of my own to this challenge:
- What is your destination?
- What is one thing that you want to be sure to pack?
- What vehicle are you driving? Or maybe you’re taking another form of transportation.
- What will you stop and see along the way?
- What music will you listen to? Create your own playlist.
- What are other details of your trip?
We can use the image of a winding road for the ups and downs that COVID has taken us through in the past year. It’s easy to feel disappointed when we can’t do the things we had hoped to do, that COVID kept us from doing. Instead, I’m choosing to reframe this time as an opportunity to think about where I want to go, to plan an imaginary road trip so I can take a real one when the time is right to do so.
Today’s Take-Away: Planning an imaginary road trip can be fun! To help you plan out your trip, I put all of this into an Imaginary Road Trip activity sheet for you to use. Take your creativity one step further and draw or search for images to illustrate your trip. Get your friends or family members in on the act and compare your trips. You’ll be cultivating social connections in the process.
One song that would be on my road trip playlist is Sheryl Crow’s Every Day is a Winding Road. With every passing day, I believe we’ll get “a little bit closer to feeling fine.” And who knows, we might actually make our imaginary trips a reality!
Check out our Ohio 4-H Mental Health Month resources and come back here for more information and ideas.
Yours in Health,
Theresa Ferrari, Extension Specialist, 4-H Youth Development
I love the theme of the story