A Leap of Faith
I started reading The Lost Girls tonight, the story of "three friends, four continents, one unconventional detour around the world." At the end of chapter two, as the three friends contemplate the feasibility of traveling the world for a year, Amanda Pressner asks her friends "...if we don't decide to take a leap of faith and do it now, then what?"I have spent the last five years sort of tucking away those grand dreams of traveling myself, negating those dreams for an endless number of reasons...lack of money, lack of a travel companion, lack of time. Mainly though, I think, it has been lack of courage.
In August I got a little brave and on impulse snatched up a great airfare of $94 each way to Boston. I planned a rather neat little East Coast getaway that included shuttling down to Cape Cod and hostelling in Hyannis for about four days to relax and rejuvenate on the beach by day and feast on lobster rolls and clam chowder by night.
But in the end I didn't go. I filled my mind with all those reasons I couldn't/shouldn't go and canceled my trip just days before my departure.
I regret that now because more and more I believe in the power of the mind to make obstacles fall away once we make that decision for something to be, once we visualize that it truly can be.
I regret that now because I realize my life and my dreams will simply pass me by as I sit and wait for the most perfect circumstances, i.e. money, partner.
And so now I have put together another rather neat little getaway. Only this time I am not backing out on myself. I have purchased a plane ticket to Dublin where I will stay in a hostel and go on a pub crawl or two and take a bike tour and perhaps embark on a boat tour and see a play and maybe even write a chapter of my dissertation in the library at Trinity College...and eat whatever it is those Irish people eat and certainly drink whatever it is they drink. For six days I will fully breathe in all those touristy things that Dublin has to offer.
If it sounds like I am trying to prove something to myself, the truth is I am. I need to take that leap of faith. Because if I don't, then what?
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Also, don't forget to go to Bewley's on Grafton St. for a cup of coffee one morning!
My mother just did the same herself, and for the first time in her life, she went on vacation by herself. One week in Jamaica. She loved it, met wonderful people, and is still suffering from adventure-withdrawal three weeks later. It took her four years to work up the courage, and now she's already planning her next trip. :)