Author’s note: Sharing some photos I took in recent travels.
WRITING can be a world of wonder inspired by life, or maybe anxiety when hit by the writer’s block. It could be a means for a catharsis to heal, a eureka to do a masterpiece, a wonder to see new places and meet new people, a communication platform to express, or a means to conduct daily correspondence.
For me, when the heat of summer strikes, wanderlust is triggered. And what results can be more inspired writing. Defined by Oxford Languages as “a strong desire to travel,” wanderlust can be a motivating factor in seeing the world in person, and especially today, appreciating, understanding, and immersing in culture and nature.
After the lockdowns of the pandemic, and with the five-day long weekend, millions of travelers converged again in different airports, seaports, expressways, restaurants, resorts and places off the beaten path. It’s revenge travel, so it’s said.
The wonders that travel offers us is a treasure trove of learning, insights and realizations that are key to one’s broad understanding. It leaves us with memories that we share, like and view at will in social media posts of video, selfies, groufies, food, landscapes, tweets, vlogs, adventures and discoveries. It also widens our arsenal of expression and realizations as we encounter new words, taste new dishes, meet new people, see iconic sights, and learn another language.
Experiential is key, it matters today, and communication is very much alive and kicking.
How can one maximize this wanderlust as communicators and tap into the experience? I’m sure you all will have more to say than the list below:
1. Strategize: Plan ahead and have expectations in place. Some like the spontaneity of the unknown and the unplanned. But if one is traveling with family or in my case, if I travel alone for conferences and business trips, I like to plan everything. The latter I guess is a habit I picked up from my military officer Dad. It also frees my mind from details that have been taken care of, to take in more of where I am and where I am going.
2. Adapt: Respect cross-cultural acknowledgment of the local culture and mores. Our University of the Philippines late conductor and mentor, Dean Rey T. Paguio, would always remind us to adjust, be respectful and considerate when on our concert tours. When we would stay with host families, he always reminded us not to impose our ways on them and to always write them bread-and-butter notes expressing thanks and appreciation for their hospitality and kindness.
3. Prevent: Safety and presence of mind. As in crisis communication management, part of the preparation is reading up on conditions and do’s and don’ts wherever one is going. It also means knowing one’s limits and capabilities. Awareness and presence of mind are needed to keep safe.
4. Read the signs: Follow instructions. Disembarking from one’s plane ride, a beeline naturally forms as passenger groups begin walking to immigration for international travelers, and then to luggage retrieval. But what happens when one has to do a side trip to the rest rooms and upon emerging from the restroom, realize that the queue that led to the next area for arrivals had disappeared? I turn to the signs, eye-catching, clear directions on where to go next in the maze of turns in the airport. It gets me thinking about the effort and much thought that went into making standard international communication tools: the choice and color of font, font size, translations, sign size and placement, and the ever-updating flight updates on the boards, especially in humongous airports.
5. Sustain: Protect the environment. From bringing an eco-bag to complying with anti-littering rules, and throwing trash in the right bin, it bodes well today for us travelers to all do our share in helping Mother Earth as we enjoy her treats for us.
6. Cover: Take lots of photos (and videos). My late uncle who used to take photos for travel magazines once advised me not to scrimp on taking photos because he said that moment is unique. Even if one reconstructs the moment, he said, it will not be exactly the same. Perhaps the mood would have changed, the circumstances different.
7. Document: Collate your travel moments. Let visual communication flow. Writing about unforgettable experiences somehow makes the words flow better. And when accompanied by photos or videos, less words may be needed as visuals, and even better, the multisensory audio and visual post carries the day.
8. Live in the moment: For those of us caught up in seemingly endless deadlines, matrices of plans and programs, incessant issues and crises management, on-call days and nights, travel can be the unwinding and refresh we so need. It could just be a few precious hours or it could be longer, it could be nearby or to a distant location, but the benefits will remain. It could be by land, air or sea. Or it could be a vicarious trip. For some it means an unhurried, undisturbed burying in a book or even just curling into a seat while sipping coffee in a different spot of the house. It can be a simple “getting away” to unwind, a physical travel or even just a mental travel moment to free up one’s mind and reboot.
So let the wanderlust take us to places we’ve never been, places with which we’d like to reconnect or activities we’d like to try.
And as we do so, let’s let the experience sink in as we exercise our full use of communication skills: observing, listening, asking questions, planning, adapting, documenting, speaking, expressing, writing, reflecting, and living in the moment.
The mindfulness we will experience in our wanderlust, and the memories we will make will be good for our communicator’s depth and soul. And for all these, we are grateful.
PR Matters is a roundtable column by members of ipra Philippines, the local chapter of the United Kingdom-based International Public Relations Association, the world’s premier association for senior communications professionals around the world. Ritzi Villarico-Ronquillo, APR, IABC Fellow is a Consultant, Coach and Speaker on Business Communication and Strategic Public Relations with 43 years of experience in leading internal and external communication and PR in corporate, communities, academe and associations.
We are devoting a special column each month to answer the reader’s questions about public relations. Please send your comments and questions to askipraphil@gmail.com.
