Hodophobia, or not

[jchrisobrien]

I grew up in a poor family. We scraped along with all the basics, but the concern over money was always hovering above us. When we did take vacation, they were all in driving distance. We flew to Disney World once or twice, but flying was otherwise unheard of. Taking vacations or visiting other countries were as foreign to me as accounting or calculus. More importantly, I thought the idea of spending hundres of dollars just to Go Somewhere was a waste of money. Slowly I made changes to that. I traveled to tournaments, then to Montreal, then to San Francisco. Last year I walked the streets of Germany and Poland. Travel was not an impossibility, just a rare treat.

I bought plane tickets to two events in London over the summer, and I will have to buy another ticket from London to Serbia. I found out this morning that one of my events is being moved to a new weekend. A brief wave of panic surged over me, and I started berating myself: this is the Universe punishing you for flying to London for something as frivolous as a tournament.

Let's be clear: the Universe does not punish us. The Universe does not care what we do. I was nervous about spending a lot of money on two trips. I was trying to talk myself out of it by putting down my reasons for going. Why does anyone travel? To see new things and have new experiences. Any trip can be boiled down and de-railed and made to look ridiculous. At this point and time, Warhammer is My Thing. It's not as glamorous or sexy as many other hobbies or interests, but it's mine. I've already shown I can travel overseas to play games, so there's not reason for not doing it twice. I have the savings for it. I can replenish my savings. My savings are not for a house, it's just because I can. Or for having an adventure.

There's a very good chance that I can transfer my tickets to a new flight once I get confirmation on the new location and date. There will be a few anxious days waiting until every thing is ironed out. Then I can get back to planning the details of my two trips. To play games overseas. Which will be awesome.

Comments

[cris.livejournal.com]

One thing I've always valued about travel is that it breeds a certain resiliency and capability for adapting to change. You're taken out of your routine when you have to embark on a journey, and it's always possible that something won't go according to plan. Delays occur. Schedules change. Luggage gets left behind. Or, more positively, lovely surprises occur. New friends get made. New places that you didn't think existed are revealed to you. And we just learn to roll with it. Either we build better plans that can absorb these changes or we learn to make do with whatever the change gives us -- which is the way life operates once you look up above the day-to-day routine. Jobs dry up. New opportunities emerge. People come and go. And we learn or have trained ourselves to be open to all of that.

If anything, it's important to make the decision to travel. What happens after that is part of the experience.

[spitcurl.livejournal.com]

Word.

Some of my most memorable travel experiences were the same ones with the greatest snafus or chaos. (That includes almost drowning in Nice, the crazy day navigating Istria in which I lost cris' cell phone, and the Christmas Eve accident in Merida that left me with a big scar on my leg.) Letting go of the need to organize and just going with the flow...not the easiest thing for me, but always worthwhile when life sends me a big reminder.

I hear you silas7 on the growing up poor and taking mostly local driving vacations. I couldn't afford to travel off the continent until I turned 30, and I still have to budget carefully to do so.

If it helps, the British Museum is free and spectacular. And the Victoria & Albert currently has a David Bowie exhibit which looks amazing: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/david-bowie-is/

[atalanta.livejournal.com]

Very wise post, silas7.
Second spitcurl on those museums too.

[nepenthedreams]

I think it's cool. I know people travel for all sorts of reasons, harry potter conventions, belly dance workshops :-), etc. No one can judge you for why you travel (unless your travel goal involves little boys & girls and/or sweatshop labor).

I don't regret any trip I've ever taken, even though that money is spent and gone.

[ayun.livejournal.com]

Ooh, yes, this last point. Every trip I have this passing notion that I should keep careful track of how much I spent, and then I never do. Mostly because at the end of the trip, I never regret the money I've spent on it. (I also have the luxury of not having to watch my pennies because of the way I budget for travel.)

[ayun.livejournal.com]

I just went back to an entry I wrote while in Japan Japan (which was my second trip out of North America, my first solo[ish] international trip, and my first time visiting a country for more than a day where I didn't speak the language):

I was asked no less than four times on the plane from Boston why I`m going to Japan...Though the real answer is rather vague, and a little complicated, and I could just say that I`m visiting a friend if I wanted to be brief, I`ve chosen to make my stock reply a simple Why not? I`m going because it`s there (well, here) to go to. I`m going because the rest of the world is something I would like very much to see. And yeah, this trip was sort of precipitated by having someone to visit, but I like to think I would have made it here eventually.

There's nothing wrong with traveling just because you want to! That's why I do it! There's a lot of cool stuff out there in the world!

[theamazingjb.livejournal.com]

You know, if you cant move your ticket, it is really easy to book a trip to anywhere in Europe from London. Maybe you can just travel.

I would happily accept universe punishment in that form.

[spitcurl.livejournal.com]

Also, I keep reading this entry as "HODOR-phobia" which makes me smile. :)