Why Do We Take Vacations?

My brain is a contradiction.  I was blessed with a very logical and pragmatic portion as well as a completely flighty emotional one.  This leads to very interesting arguments inside of my brain.  One of the most common ones is the purpose of spending money on fleeting things such as concerts and vacations. My flighty emotional side loves the experience and doing new things; while my pragmatic part grumbles about wasting money on things that don't last. So why do we do this? I mean, I know we aren't Vulcans (if you don't know what those are you obviously didn't grow up with gigantic nerds for family members) but our actions should be governed by some logic, right?

My mom has a phrase that she always uses whenever we grumble about not liking a family outing. She says that we are, "making memories." Now, although she just applies it to situations that are less than desirable; she is kind hits the mark on this one. Isn't that why we-well everyone but my family pay big bucks to go on fancy vacations; to make memories?

 But even though there is a reason; the logical part of my brain still asks "what is the point of making memories?" For awhile, I didn't have an answer to that. But then, the other night, it hit me. Memories are what define us. They make us who we are. For example, when we lived overseas we used to have to take this horribly nasty malaria medicine. I mean it was bad. The worst thing that I have EVER tasted. To reward us for taking medicine like good little children; our parents would give us chocolate afterwards. I soon began to associate the taste of the horrid medicine with chocolate and it wasn't long until I began to dislike chocolate and refused to eat it. So, the bad memories I associated with the medicine erased my love of chocolate for awhile (don't worry; I have it back now).

But memories can have an even larger impact on us than just changing what foods we like. They can define out character and change our personality. A guy who has had a lot of betrayal or abandonment in their lives will be more closed off from people. A girl who was told everyday she was beautiful will be more confident and sure of herself. Our memories and experiences make us who we are. And this is the answer to the pragmatic bit of my brain; we spend money to make good memories because good memories make us better people. So go ahead, spend loads of money on your vacations! (Unless of course you want to send some of that money my way. I am a broke college student after all.)

~Nat