Last week I was IM chatting with my niece on Skype about my upcoming travels and she commented that “you and Elena are soo lucky you guys get to travel soo much”. I know what she meant, and she meant well, but it’s worth pointing out living and traveling like we do takes a great deal of work. Too few ever seem to really recognized that.

The first time around it was harder to hear statements this, but I’ve since learned to put it in the same category of people that say things like: “OMG that photo is so beautiful! You must have a really expensive camera”. In these situations people are sincerely trying to pay a compliment, they just don’t really realize what their words really suggest isn’t so much a compliment of the human involved.

A lot of my fellow photographers have heard that refrain so often they have a saying about this, “It’s not the camera”. I think we travelers can similarly embrace, “It’s not luck” as our refrain. More on the hard work that goes into this life in another post.

I’m as guilty as the next person of making comments like this, but hopefully this post will help us all remember next time we are amazed by something someone has done to take a moment to recognize what went into that accomplishmen. And perhaps even better to sincerely ask them about the hard work that went into realizing it.

It doesn’t matter if it’s the photographer with beautiful photos, the Olympic athlete with a medal around their neck or the parent with amazing kids… Take a moment and ask “How did you capture such a beautiful photo?”, “Tell me about how you trained so long and hard to achieve that medal?” and “What have you done to raise such amazing children?”

Side note: this officially marks my return to travel blogging so start paying attention to this site again if you’re interested, much more travel related stories and photos to come.