On a Thursday morning, I was driving our teenage daughter Helena to high school, and at some point, she became engaged with her iPhone, so I decided to listen to a sports show on the Sirius XM Radio.

By the way, Helena now has a car, and she will start driving school this summer. She is the last one of our kids who will go through this learning process. We will have to do our part, and we will practice with her, which means we are yet again putting our lives on the line!

Now back to the radio show …

An analyst made a comment when discussing the possibility of an NBA player leaving his current team after playing for them for nearly a decade.

He said to the other analyst, “Did you know that 40% of people never leave their area code. What I’m saying here is most people want to stay at home … this is where they find their comfort.”

Comfort Zone

To be honest, I have no idea where the analyst found this startling statistic, and I am not sure it is precise. This would mean that 4 out of 10 people end up in the same city or area where they were born.

However, the sports analyst does bring up an important point we can discuss here.

When I travel for business, whether I am in India, Costa Rica, or Kentucky, I do miss home after a few days of enjoying my new surroundings, which is called the honeymoon period.

I start thinking about my family, church friends, San Antonio weather, and even the homemade guacamole we make.

In my case, I was born in Uvalde, Texas, and when I was around 10-years-old, we moved to a small farm community in southwest Kansas.

However, after completing my community college studies, I came to San Antonio.

A couple of years later I graduated from St. Mary University, and I moved to Houston to accept a job at Shell Oil Company and worked in H-Town until 1997.

But I’m back near my area code again.

Perhaps this analyst does have a point about how we are like homing pigeons, constantly looking for the coordinates that take us to our comfort zone … our home.

Exploration

Our family has been blessed over the past three decades to have been able to explore many places around the world. I’m also fortunate that my work takes me to beautiful and exotic locales.

I make it a habit to share with my students that they should seek opportunities to get outside their comfort zone and to have an open mind about visiting other countries.

As the United States becomes a more diverse country, there is a huge benefit to getting to know other cultures, language, and even food.

My wife and I have plans to visit southern France this year, and we are taking the kids on a Thanksgiving trip to the New England states.

However, we are always excited when the United Airlines captain announces …

“Buckle up, ladies and gentlemen, we are on our final approach to San Antonio.”