JAN. 2022 | ISSUE 02

THE MONDAY MEMO

A WEEKLY INSIDER LOOK INTO ALL THINGS TRAVEL,
COMMUNITY, EXPERIENCES THAT INSPIRE

A Letter from Our CEO

DANNY RIVERS-MITCHELL

Hey Community!

How did your first week of reclaiming your time to do the things you desire to do go?

Well, for me, to be 100% transparent, I fell off a bit. Ok, I fell off a lot. In fact, I just couldn’t keep up with what my heart desired. My body took over and searched for every opportunity to rest and I gave in. I for sure don’t see that as a bad thing you know. What I came to realize is that you can only plan so much. Although we have plans, there will come a time where you will need to be gentle with yourself and hope for the best. And my best was putting my health first.

So, I was toying with how open I wish to be with you all. For years I’ve fantasized about the idea of sharing more and more of me and my journey with our community, but felt reluctant to do so from time to time. Every time I said I wanted to share a challenge, lesson, or even a win with you all, I would give in and not share anything at all. Holding on to my experiences whether good or bad as if they weren’t important enough to share. I’ve decided that my experiences are worth sharing in hopes of helping someone else as many have helped me with theirs.

My father, who resides in Alabama, reached out to me in the latter part of 2021, to inform me that he was having open-heart surgery. Now, this wasn’t his first time having heart surgery as he has had a Triple Bypass years prior. Even more concerned, I started to ask questions about why he needed another surgery. He shared that there was a leaking heart valve that needed to be repaired.

And then abruptly he stated, if all goes well, I am coming to Barbados, as it is the only way I will be able to see you it seems. I laughed and jokingly said, well come on then. I am here and would love to have you experience what global freedom not only looks like but also feel like.

Well, I guess that joke was on me. When my father first mentioned coming to Barbados, I didn’t take him seriously. I mean, he didn’t have a passport, never seen what the inside of an airport looked like, let alone been on a plane. Everything about him traveling internationally echoed too many challenges that resulted in my mind as an impossible task.

But, when someone puts their mind to something, watch them work.

Now mind you, my dad is a 66-year-old black man who grew up in the backwoods of Alabama. I didn’t grow up with my father within the household but would see him occasionally. However, there was never a great deal of time that I and my brother spent with him. If I had to guess, we would probably see him four times a year and for no more than a weekend at a time. In fact, as I entered my teens, I saw less and less of him.

When the process of him securing his passport started, I thought, there is no way he’ll be able to get his passport back in time for a Christmas vacation in Barbados with only two months out. As his birth certificate was missing some important information. You see back then and where my father was born, there was one lady that would do the filling on the birth certificates and would oftentimes incorrectly fill them out. If she didn’t like your name, she would change it. Or if she didn’t like the date you were born on, she would change it. Crazy right?!?!

Well, in regards to my dad’s birth certificate, she forgot to put the registration number on it. Therefore, the passport office denied my father’s passport application. My husband, finding this situation strange, unknowingly signed up to assist my dad with securing a passport. We had to send in letter after letter and additional documents to prove his identity.

Finally, one week prior to December 2021, my dad called and said, I GOT MY PASSPORT. I AM GOING TO BARBADOS.

On that day, we booked our first international vacation in Barbados. After booking our flights, I started to wonder. How will the vacation go? Who would help him navigate through the airport? Will he become overwhelmed within such an unfamiliar environment and give up?