Only ten days after coming home from Paris, I’m back at the airport.

Today I’m heading to Williamsburg, Virginia for the annual gathering of my family’s Scottish clan. I had a wonderful time last year, even if I was the youngest participant.

In fact, one of the questions I got over and over was, “How can we attract more young people to these gatherings?”

“Wait for them to get older,” I would joke.

But there was a nugget of truth behind my kidding: Most of us don’t think about our heritage until we’re older. When we’re young, our lives lie in the future.

Only when we get older and start to contemplate our own mortality do most of us ponder where we came from, who went before us, who we are—and why.

I’m very much looking forward to seeing some of the friends I made last year. And I’m especially looking forward to spending some quality time with my parents.

Stay tuned … more to come from Williamsburg.