I leave for Europe in seventeen days and I have just begun to plan. As I write this, I haven't yet made sleeping arrangements in any city in which I'm staying. Shit, besides the cities where the tennis tournaments are, I haven't even decided all the places I'm traveling to.
The last time I traveled solo internationally was when I went to Spain back in college. Back then, my planning was … minimal. I often flew by the seat of my pants. You know what? Things tended to work out okay. But I'm almost twenty-fives years older now--that's a lot of time in which to ossify.
But with only seventeen days left to go, I'm clearly gonna have to approach things to some degree as I did back then. Intellectually, I know it's going to be okay--this is Western Europe that I'm traveling to. It's not like I'm going somewhere where if I forget to pack something, I might die.
I know that intellectually. I'm nevertheless scared as hell. Am I going to do it anyway? Yes, I am.
I’ve done solo extended overseas trips 3 times now, and you know what, even on the third time I was still a little scared. I don’t think the fear ever fully goes away when someone is planning one of these sorts of trips, but I can say, at least from my own experience, that the fear tends to disappear when you get on the plane. At that point you’ve planned as best you can, you’ve double-checked to make sure you’ve got your passport and all your gear, and your mind finally consents to the fact that you’re going on an adventure to a distant land. Yes, mistakes will probably be made and unforeseen events will likely occur, but the fear is gone and you do your best to make it the best trip you can.