Oh, the irony. Bora Bora is one of the most famous resort destination vacation spots in the world, known for its turquoise water and overwater bungalows. People pay outrageous amounts of money to spend their vacations there, and I have found myself somewhere I would rather stay than go to Bora Bora. We will go there, of course, if for no other reason than to say we went there.
I find myself questioning whether this makes any sense at all. Is life really long enough to go somewhere, just so you can say you went? At happy hour last night I threw this out there, and a barrage of “you HAVE to go to Bora Bora” came back at me. I was even labeled “anti-Bora Bora.” There was general consensus that Huahine is amazing, and we’d all like to stay longer, and that Bora Bora probably won’t be that great, being all touristy and stuff. One person even said they wanted to go to Bora Bora just so they can tell people they went to Bora Bora and it was “meh.” I get it, and I can feel myself getting swept away in that mentality, but I’m trying to resist. Must. Resist. Do I really want to be motivated to do something just so I can say I did?
I’m reminded of something Merle from S/V Kenta Anae said way back in La Cruz as he was mocking the social media culture. I’m sure I’ll butcher the quote, but it went something like, “If I didn’t post it or blog about it, did it really happen?” The point being that we are so caught up in documenting and sharing what we do that we forget to really experience it.
So True. I take my camera everywhere, so I can share my photos. I write essays for the facebook page. I check for likes and comments as if that’s some sort of validation. I really need to back off and stop seeing my life as a script unraveling as the facebook posts rack up.
Hence, I started this blog.
But we really shouldn’t go to Bora Bora, just to say we did. I still stand by that.
-D.
Gresham Family Exodus 