Kelly Konrad

I have been toying with the idea of including stories and details of my travels growing up, as well as those in the present and future. My family, both mine and my in laws, are big on traveling, and I am incredibly blessed! I’m thankful for all of these experiences, because I learned so many life lessons, as well as being immersed in various cultures and settings.

My first time on a plane was when I was in middle school when I went on a class trip to Washington D.C. My first time wasn’t exactly positive because my middle school years were riddled with bullying and teasing, and feeling left out because I have autism. People fear what they don’t understand, and this idea is gonna be talked about more in the future of this blog.

Let’s just say for now that I see these who bullied and teased with compassion now, because they were afraid of what they didn’t understand, and they probably look back on that and feel bad about hurting someone. I know I went off on this bunny trail, so back to the topic at hand: My travels growing up.

My dad traveled (and still does) a lot for reasons pertaining to the shoe business he has been a part of his whole life mostly. Because of this, I remember standing at the top of the stairs as a 7 year old (I think…) crying because I knew I was gonna miss him. When he arrived home from these trips, my sister and I always looked forward to the cultural gifts he would bring home to us. I remember one of them being silk kimonos from China. I remember that mine was red with intricate designs and needle-work, so beautiful!

When I was nearing my 8th grade graduation, I was glittering with excitement and anticipation about the big move we were about to embark on as a family. We were moving to the Caribbean, the Dominican Republic! Before the trip, my sister, my toddler brother, and I were starting to learn a bit of Spanish from a kid’s Spanish cassette tape, and remembering that now makes me feel old! Haha!

Our time in the Dominican Republic started out awkward, as we were in the minority, those who only knew English. I remember we all had to grunt and point to things in the grocery store because we didn’t know enough Spanish, and probably had thick accents according to the locals.

As time went on, and we became engrossed in our schooling, we started to adapt to the culture. I learned so much from the Hispanic culture, including Spanish, of course. I also had to adjust because it was hard being an introvert, as people always wanted to talk to me, hug me, and give me Dominican kisses. I remained my introverted self the time I was in the country, but I warmed up to this, and became more comfortable.

One of the biggest lessons I learned was a hard emotional one. I was dating a Dominican boy named Martin for a while. Of course as teenagers, things started out with us taking things too far, like talking about marriage and all of that. We also at times enjoyed each other’s company a bit ‘ahem’ too much. We generally grew and learned together over the course of two years. The beginning of the third year, tragedy struck. He was killed in a motor cycle crash at the tender age of 15. I was devastated!

That’s when I learned important lesson on expressing emotions. As an American introvert, I found it hard to outwardly express emotions. The Dominican culture was seemingly the opposite. At the memorial, I heard his mother and lots of family wailing in sorrow. This really took me by surprise, but I immediately felt compassion, and hugged and loved on them as much as I could. What I learned that emotions are meant to be expressed in a healthy way, like crying in their instance. I can’t thank them enough for teaching and showing me that! I still find it hard to openly express emotions, but I will carry this memory fondly for the rest of my life.

This was one of the first of many lessons to come…