When I leave work on Thursday, instead of taking the back route home through sleepy little Uniontown and bustling Hartville, I will get on the highway and head north to Cleveland Hopkins Airport. I am flying to Chicago on Thursday afternoon, and as excited as I am at the prospect of seeing Tom and Kristy (and Chicago!) again, I am almost that nervous about getting there.
I guess I have travel anxiety. I don't really know what else to call it. Any time I am planning a trip anywhere, really, by any means of transportation, I get very nervous and anxious about it. Over the years, I have tried to break down my feelings and understand them so that I can just get over them already. I used to think I was afraid of flying, but that's not it. Once I'm finally settled in my teeny little seat, I feel fine. Until we land, that is, and I have to worry about how to make my connection or meet up with whoever is waiting for me at the other end.
I don't suffer as much anxiety when I am driving somewhere, and, in fact, was fine almost all the way to Julie's house. I was a little nervous about getting lost once I left the highway, but since I just drove there last year, I didn't have any problems with that. Travelling with someone else helps, as well, but when Ben and I travel together, I worry about the dogs all the time. I have decided that my anxiety, then, stems mainly from two causes: getting out of my little rut and doing things I don't usually do and therefore don't know how to do, and relinquishing control of - everything.
If you have any helpful hints on how to finally defeat all this and enjoy travelling, for god's sake, please send them to me post haste. I thank you.
4 comments:
I don't know how helpful this will be...
I look at travel as an end in and of itself. I enjoy looking around at my fellow travelers and wondering where they're going, who they're meeting, and what in their lives has led them to this point. I make up little scenarios in my mind, and it's endless entertainment. :)
I don't try to control the situation around me: as long as I have my ID, phone, a good book, a little cash and one major credit card, well, I can handle pretty much anything life throws at me. I've had missed connections and delayed planes, but I know that, in the grand scheme of things, I'm OK. I'll still have time to visit the people and things I want to see. Taking away the pressure to scurry about and get there now makes travel far less stressful.
Anyway, I'm not sure if this will be particularly helpful to you. I hope it is and that you have a wonderful trip!
Thanks, Carla! I used to be a fanatic (as I'm sure Tom would tell you!) even on car trips about GETTING WHERE WE WERE GOING, but I have learned to take the back roads and enjoy them, so maybe I can, indeed, apply that same principle to air travel. And, as you say, I'll have everything I need with me, so I can just sit and knit - which is probably what I would be doing anyway.
i feel like the best way to deal with it is try to prepare as much as possible for things. that way, as i (repeatedly) run through what i might've missed or forgotten and come up with nothing, i can calm down a bit.
You know, it's just not a rational thing, and I'm not sure there's any good way to deal with it. The main thing is, it doesn't stop me from going.
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