Great Expectations

Don’t worry we aren’t talking Charles Dickens today. We’re talking a regular human occurrence— getting our hopes up. I’m going to skip the negative side effect of when expectations don’t meet reality (because we’ve all experienced that occurrence and that’s not a fun post to write.) This post I’m focusing on the positive aspect. Today I’m talking VACATION! I read in a study that people are happier sometimes weeks and months before a trip because of the anticipation it yields. I believe it.

I’m getting excited for a little road trip outta state, across a handful of states, rather. I’m not sure what it is about trips that make me happy. Maybe it’s because as a kid my family wasn’t fortunate enough to take many vacations. Maybe it’s because I like adventure. Maybe it’s just the idea of getting away from it all for a few days that seems appealing. Or maybe it’s because our older neighbor growing up once gave me this piece of advice – “travel and see all you can when you’re young because when you’re older you don’t have the opportunities or the health.”  

Regardless of the reason I’m happy about a trip coming up. I’m happy. When I discovered an earlier planned trip this summer wasn’t going to work, I admit, I was bummed. But my friend (we’ll call her Awesome) came through. Awesome knows how much I like to travel and how rare my opportunities are. So she made it happen. I know Awesome wants to get away too. She’s a stay-at-home mom who has a supportive husband that encourages her to have an adventure every now and again and explore a different corner of the country. So it’s a mutual beneficial trip. We’ve traveled together before and we’re both very flexible and chill. And an added bonus is I do have a friend that lives in the vicinity of where we’re venturing. And although I do many things alone— and at this season in my life I’m okay with that— the one thing I don’t want to do is . . . travel alone.  

I want to be able to say a few years from now:  Remember when we saw . . .

or that one time when we were at . . .

It’s validating in some way to share a trip or a memory with someone. Oh, I’m sure that one of these days I will take a trip by myself, because my bucket list is too long and my friends who have flexible travel schedules are few. But for now— for my soon-to-be trip— I have great expectations for getting away and making memories to share. And don’t worry— I understand we might run into a traffic jam or the hotel may not be as advertised. Time stands still for no one and I want to follow my wise former neighbor’s advice. Thanks, Awesome and especially thank you, Mrs. Stewart!