I’m Ready to Plan

It has finally happened. I think I am ready to plan travel.

Like many people, I haven’t been on a plane since March 2020, which is the longest it has been between flights in my life.

Now for the first time in more than a year, I have plans. Granted, they are 100% refundable plans, but they are plans.

I have hotel reservations and a plane ticket booked for a trip to New York to visit friends. I admit I was almost giddy when I heard the Delta Airlines hold music when I had to call because I couldn’t get a certificate to attach to my reservation. I know I will be a blubbering fool when we start going down the runway for takeoff. I am getting choked up just thinking about it now.

Taking that step to make reservations excited me and made me happy.

Now comes the harder part.

It’s difficult to have plans. I’m wondering if I have forgotten how it feels to have them. I need to remind myself it means getting excited about doing and experiencing something. It has been a while since that has happened.

I’m being cautious with my excitement. I’m still not convinced I will actually take the trip. I don’t want to be too disappointed if things take a turn for the worse and travel isn’t possible or won’t be enjoyable when I get there.

I don’t want to go through all the planning and then not go.

During the pandemic, I have not been one of people who spent her time reading travel books and taking all kinds of notes for my next vacation. I was almost the opposite. I have been the one who basically hasn’t looked at much of anything related to travel other than reading blogs daily.

Sure, I have been thinking about where I want to go and what I want to do, but I didn’t let myself get too into it. Things are still changing really fast.

It’s the opposite of who I am at the core. I am a planner. I am a list maker. When it comes to travel, I always say I like to have a plan but not a schedule. In before times, I would often have trips booked more than a year in advance and on my calendar.

I’m wondering if the pandemic has permanently changed how I look at travel or if it will go back to how it was.

I am at the point where I am ready to make the plans, but I am not quite ready to get too excited about them.

Where are you in your thoughts about starting to plan travel?