Frequently Asked Questions
When I tell people about my plans, I usually get one of three responses:
1. Aren’t you scared?
2. Are you traveling by yourself? (which is followed by question number 1)
3. Is this an Eat-Pray-Love thing?
Yes. Yes. No.
Of course I am scared. The list of what-ifs goes on and on….
what if i get malaria? what if i run into a huge snake in southern india? what if i get lonely? what if I get really sick? what if I get abducted? what if I run out of money? what if I get hurt and have to come home early? what if I miss my mommy? what if I get my head chopped off? what if it turns out I don’t like traveling?
as you can see….. the mind can run rampant with these what-if questions (and all of a sudden I am transported to my classroom and how my students love the what if questions and I can understand the 10th grade brain in a whole new way…..)
But, at the same time, I guess I don’t know what I would be missing if I don’t go. I don’t know how lonely or how scary it will be — since right now, I am just imagining the possibilities. But to live it and see it and experience it…. then I will know. And sometimes, the idea of just staying is as scary and lonely as anything else I can imagine….
5 days until I move out of my apartment. Just ask me if I am ready…. come on, just ask! ok, I’ll tell you. um, not ready. nope, not packed.
and as for the eat-pray-love thing…. i mean, i guess because she traveled – there is that similarity. But i am not a writer, not getting paid to travel and not-getting-a-divorce-rebounding-and-breaking-up. So there is that. Nor am I julia roberts. just sayin’
