T is for Travel

Okay, I acknowledge that at least 90% of the bloggers doing this challenge are going to write about travel.  Let’s face it.  We all know travel is the meaning of life.  (I can’t wait to read everyone’s responses to that statement!)

I was a late bloomer in the travel department, not getting my first passport until I was 21 years old and not leaving the country until 22 – New Zealand – 2.5 hours away.

I hit my travel stride at 26, adding stamps to that passport like something that adds things very quickly.

I once worked with a woman who judged people based on whether they possessed a passport or not.  Almost as if a person possessed no value whatsoever if they had not travelled.  Once, on a work trip, she and I, plus a non-passport owner workmate sat down to dinner.  Somehow the conversation turned to travel and I sat in utter silence as she literally berated the poor homebody non-traveller for not having left the country.  It was really weird and actually mean.

I have a question.  Has anyone else experienced an increase in trepidation in regards to travel as they get older?  As you’re well aware, I’m forty years old.  Where once I would take on the world in a single bound, with little to no forethought or planning, I now find myself slightly anxious when preparing to travel.

I’m off to Peru in July.  I speak Spanish, so the language shouldn’t be a barrier.  All of my flights and accommodation is booked and my spending money saved.  There’s very little for me to worry about apart from getting the best shot of Macchu Pichu that I can.  And yet, I worry.  What if something happens to me while I’m away?  What if I’m robbed?  Or there’s an earthquake?  Or volcano?  What if the plane crashes?  Or the train? 

Maybe it’s because I need vaccinations before I go.  Maybe because it’s a new continent for me?  The unknown?  I don’t know.  I’m just hoping that once I’m there and in the moment, the fear disappears and I let it all envelope me, reminding me of why I need to plan the next trip, and the one after that, and the one after that.......