Edmonton, Canada was most definitely not on a bucket list or any list of mine. My youngest child wanted to go there to visit his girlfriend . . . in March. It didn’t sound fun to me. It sounded cold, very cold.
I spent some time online learning about Edmonton to learn that it probably wouldn’t be totally awful. There was potential.
This trip set off my anxiety meter like it was the first day of school. What could go wrong? A lot. There was forgetting the passports, never having traveled out of country, getting lost in the airport, getting out of the airport, getting lost outside of the airport, driving, AirBNB being awful, not being able to come back to the US, and my sons visit with girlfriend being a disaser.
There are times where I love the imagination of my brain. This was not one of them.
Could I not go? Of course. I am (mostly) in control of my life and as Dr. Suess wrote – I can steer myself in any direction I chose, to go in any direction I chose. I looked within and saw the fear and anxiety. I also saw the opportunity to try something new, leave my comfort zone, and start a new chapter in my life.
The truth is, as fearful as I was, this is what I want. I want to travel. I want to be brave and take calculated risks that lead me somewhere new. I knew if I stayed home I would always wonder “what if” I took the trip. There are moments in life where the thought of not doing something seems more difficult than doing something. This was one of them.