Me and my mom share the same birthday, meaning we are both Sagittarius. She will tell you that it’s where we get our shared love of travel, but I think I can chalk it up to growing up with her work in the Luxury Travel Business. Wherever it came from, I couldn’t be more grateful to have traveled during some of my formative years.
Growing up as Sari Freeman’s daughter certainly has its perks. From a very young age, routine family vacations had a sharp luxury edge. Me and my younger sister Alissa became accustomed to extravagant welcome spreads in our suite living rooms, often enjoyed on balconies that offered sweeping mountain views. It was so ingrained in us early on that at the age of 7, when passing a local New Jersey Motel, my sister asked “how many stars does it have?”
The experience of growing up in a luxury travel household left us with some very particular taste. My sister, like most kids, was picky growing up. However, she was particularly fond of things that paired well with wine, despite being years away from her first sip. Even more curiously she developed a taste for airplane food.
Something that was less than ideal was experiencing some of my most awkward ages in some of the world’s most beautiful places. While it’s bad enough to be a teenager with ill fitting clothing and acne, it’s worse when you’re in St Tropez surrounded by the world’s most beautiful people. No one wants to experience puberty, but much less in the same Amalfi Coast Hotel where Kim Kardashian spent her honeymoon. Alas, I have.
Much more important than gaining a taste for luxury, was gaining a sense of how big the world was. The experience of stepping off a plane and realizing the fact that *gasp* people don’t speak your language, is a humbling, especially at a young age.
As Americans, we may believe that we are the center of the known universe. It’s important to realize early on how much of the spinning globe revolves around things that have nothing to do with you, your language, or your culture. It helps to put things in perspective moving forward.
However, if you’re staying with one of my mom’s partners it’s safe to say that you may still believe you are the center of the known universe. I’d say it’s worth the risk.
