Even though I have gone on countless trips and vacations in my lifetime, I still always find myself a bit frazzled the day and night before my journeys. I’m a worry wart by nature (though I’m working on it!), and regardless of what I do to put the brakes on those tendencies, I find it hard to stay perfectly calm on the eve of travel. I’m leaving town tomorrow morning, and it’s happening again.
Where am I going? I’m headed to NYC tomorrow for the second annual Travel Blog Exchange Conference. Maiden Voyage is almost a year old, and I’m thrilled that I will get to meet many of the travel bloggers I’ve interacted with so much online for the past year in person. I think I will also come away with tons of tips and tricks for making this site even better. One of my best friends in the whole world lives in NYC, so I’m staying with her the first two nights, then staying at City Club Hotel the last night to review it for TravelIntelligence.com (I’ll cross-post the review here once it’s up). I can’t wait!
Despite my excitement, I can’t completely shake the pre-travel jitters. I fret that I forgot to pack something, that I didn’t finish something at work, that my flight will be delayed, that I will accidentally sleep through my alarm, that I will get stuck next to an unpleasant person on the plane, and all other kinds of worst-case scenarios.
If every flight experience went smoothly, I’m not sure I would be as fretful. But I’ve had experiences like almost missing my plane, sitting on a tarmac for over an hour while technical problems are being fixed (and then having to get off the plane and go wait in the terminal another hour). I’ve forgotten to pack things, though fortunately most things can be found and bought wherever I go.
No matter how you slice it, travel can just be stressful. You’re at the mercy of busy airlines, annoying travelers, late trains, and more. My coworker headed to New York City today (unrelated to my trip) and emailed me while she was on the tarmac–they told them to not be alarmed if lightening struck the plane while en route! Yikes. (I researched this, and it turns out that the last time a plane in the U.S. crashed from a lightening strike was 1967…phew.)
I’m working hard at accepting that things may not always go as planned. I keep reading that embracing the act of letting go of control is the key to being worry-free. I just squeezed in a good, long workout so I won’t be as antsy tomorrow. I might get a chair massage at the airport if I have time. I have had my Continental business credit card for just over year (I use it for my freelance writing/editing business), so I just received my anniversary President’s Club passes. This means I get to relax in the President’s Club before my flight there and before my flight back. Sweet! This should all help make the day less stressful.
Now I’m off to finish packing….
What about travel stresses you out? How do you deal with it?
