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June 16, 2011
What I learned from the bathing beauties of Barcelona …
As I write this, we hover on the threshold of summer—when the weather becomes temperate and twilight stretches late into the day—and I’m really looking forward to beach season. After all, while I love traveling far from home, New England is a wonderful place to pass the summer months. But as I prepare for summer excursions with family and friends, I can happily say that I’m even looking forward to putting on my bathing suit!
Just to be clear, I know all too well that familiar sense of trepidation about stepping out in a bathing suit those first few times each summer—something I imagine many of you can relate to. But I haven’t actually felt that way in nearly 20 years, thanks to something simple, yet deeply inspiring, that the women I observed in Spain taught me.
My family and I were in Barcelona back in 1992 to attend the summer Olympics (a great experience I’ll tell you more about another time). But since the kids were still fairly young, Alan and I tried to balance our event attendance by enjoying the more serene aspects of Spanish life, as well. On several occasions, we went to the beach—a popular pastime for locals and visitors alike—since Barcelona is world-renowned for its stunning white-sand beaches.
And that’s where a diverse collection of women in all shapes, sizes, shades, ages (and even degrees of hirsuteness) taught me something very important about being human—and especially about being happy with oneself. Many of the women at the Barcelonan beaches we visited were gorgeous, for sure, and looked fantastic in their small swim suits. But it was many of the other women—especially the heavier ones—who truly amazed and inspired me most. As they wore the same, tiny two-piece suits as the younger and slimmer women, they still carried themselves with a pride and self-assurance (not to be mistaken for immodesty) that I’d rarely observed in America … or felt for myself.
After that trip to Barcelona, I was inspired to buy my own little bikini for a visit to the Seychelles later that year. I’m pretty confident in my own skin, though I haven’t worn it very many times since. But what I have done is to remember what the beach-going ladies of Barcelona taught me: We should all feel beautiful, no matter how we look.
Have you been inspired by people you encountered during your travels? If so, I’d love to hear more about it. You can share your thoughts and experiences with others by posting your comments below this Journal entry, or you can email me directly at harriet@gct.com.
In the coming weeks, we’ll be spotlighting Norway and Finland. If you’ve explored either—or both!—of these countries with Grand Circle, I hope you’ll send your stories and pictures to me at harriet@gct.com.
Harriet Lewis