Preparing to Leave

Over the course of the last two weeks I’ve been mostly getting ready for this trip, catching up on some much needed sleep and being a bit of a schadenfreude watching the stresses of life in the working world. Of course I did pause every once in a while to freak out about the diminishing balance of my 401k and the prospects of future employment as the economic crisis snowballed.

One thing I continue to struggle with is how completely out of my comfort zone it is to not have a plan. I’ve always had a plan. To the point that people make fun of me for spreadsheets and organization overkill. So not to have a job or so much as a plan for a job is a bit out of the norm from me. I have been continually re-convincing myself that this opportunity to take time off and travel is the best decision, and in fact will help me in the future to step out of my comfort zone and think creatively. Of course I did fill my need to have a plan with making arrangements for planes, trains and hotels as well as beginning to learn about some of the locals to which I’d be traveling.

I also started to plan for leaving New York for more than a week or two which had previously been the most I’d been gone at one point. I have no plants or pets to take care of but the litany of items to prepare was greater than anticipated. Who would collect the mail, who would I call/call me if there was a problem in my apartment, how do I get my bills paid so my power would still be on when I arrived back?

Once these things were done I was ready to leave and attempt this first of two major trips that would help alleviate some of my overzealous need to plan everything to the last detail.