Moments after clicking “purchase” on a pair of roundtrip tickets that marked my next major international trip, I felt butterflies.
Growing up in China, I did not have a lot of opportunities to travel when I was little. Every summer, my grandparents would take me with them on a week-long trip to the ocean. We would stay at a coastal town a few hours away, it was nothing special when I think about it now. But I was so excited every time I got to go on that trip. Every opportunity to get out of the city was an adventure to me. I would stay up on the night before we left for our trip - filled with energy and unable to sleep
30 countries and an entire decade later, I still get that feeling before every major trip - before diving in to an destination unknown to me. I have learned to love the burst of anxiousness that arrives the night before traveling. I do not try to calm myself, rather, I like to cultivate that spark into a longer lasting state of courage, boldness, and utter thrill, as if I'm on the brink of a grandeur discovery. I would chase that feeling to the end of the world.
