Next week: Ventures into the unknown…
A week from today, I’m off to New York City!
I haven’t been on a vacation in a few months, and the past couple of weeks have really underscored a need for me to take some time off and think about things. Plus, I had 50,000 frequent flyer miles that were just begging to be used. Last week I was thinking about it and I decided to burn the FF miles and head off to NYC. So I’m out — from the 16th to the 20th.
I’m both really excited and really nervous. I’m excited because I’ve never been to NYC and I can’t wait to meet some of my Internet friends in person! I’m nervous because this will be my first vacation longer than 24 hours where I’m completely on my own. Previously, I’ve always traveled with other people or met up with other people once I got to my destination. Even though I have plans to meet with people there this time as well, most of the time I’ll be on my own, without a tour guide or anyone to show me around. (I plan to buy a travel guide and mark off several places I want to go; hopefully I’ll get to all of them while I’m there.) Part of me wishes I had someone to share this trip with, and part of me says “Hey, it’ll be fun to not have anyone else around, because you can do absolutely anything you want.”
I think that second part is what frightens me; despite my tough “master planner” exterior, I’m perfectly content to let someone else have the reins for a while, as long as I get to do what I want somewhere in the plan. “Vacation”, for me, has always been defined as letting someone else make the choices. Since my entire life is filled with me constantly making choices for myself and other people, it’s nice to be able to relax and let someone else think about stuff for a while. I am mentally preparing for the fact that this vacation won’t be like that, and in some respects it makes me a bit sad. I seriously wish I had a significant other whom I could trust to go with me and make decisions for me while I sat back and relaxed and did whatever we both decided would be fun. On the other hand, I will use my ridiculously-well-honed planning skills to make sure I have a fun vacation without trying to plan things out while I’m there.
Overall, I’m optimistic about the trip. I hope this will give me the courage to continue going places on my own and to not have to wait until someone else thinks it’s a good idea to go. Also, I think most of my friends think it’s weird that I’ve never been to NYC. Now I can finally tell them to hush. 😉
