Leaving Room for the Unexpected

11:00 Visit museum
12:30 Eat lunch in the park behind museum
1:00 Relax in the park
1:30 Eat ice cream ...

I’ve come a long way since my days of planning out every minute of our travels. I think back on Scott's and my first real trip together and can feel the gravity of the change. We went to San Francisco and I had every day mapped out to a T. There were times when we were forced to change our plans for one reason or another, but almost every second of our days were planned out in advance. Scott finally convinced me on our last day to wander around without any plans. I was nervous, tense, confused. Well, then what are we going to do?, I thought. But I gave in because, after all, it was his vacation too.

I was uneasy at first. I didn’t understand the point. We were going to miss something! But after a while, I started to actually enjoy it. We wandered to a new part of the city and had an amazing meal that I still have fond memories of today. I slowly learned to let go.

I’m still a planner. I love to make lists and check things off. I thoroughly enjoy researching each place we visit before we go. But I’ve learned to balance the planned while still leaving room for the unexpected, because it’s in those moments that lasting memories are made. The times when I have let the motion of the place and the moment in time guide my experience, rather than a line in my planner, have largely been times of growth. I think that these are the times that make traveling so transformative for me.

On New Year’s Eve 2014 we were in Kemi, Finland. We were there with the sole intention of visiting Santa (the real one) in Rovaniemi. We had no expectations for Kemi. We just happened to stay there because we booked our trip last minute and we couldn’t find any place to stay in Rovaniemi within our budget. So it was 11:30 pm and we had just gotten off the train in Kemi. As we walked back to our hotel, we were looking for a place to ring in the New Year. The streets were dark, almost black, save for the blanket of snow on the ground. As we turned the corner to our hotel we stumbled upon one of the only places that seemed to be inhabited. The neon sign read “The Old Gringo”. Let me remind you, we are in rural Finland, almost as far north as the Arctic Circle, and here we are as Texans, standing in front of The Old Gringo. The absurdity of it all was just too much. Let’s just say it was fate. That New Years will forever be ingrained in my memory - the fierceness of the hugs from happy strangers, and the numerous laughs we’ve had recounting the hilarity of that moment in time still do not escape me.

I hope to do this more often. To remember the value in those moments. And not just when I’m traveling, but in my daily life. I want to leave room for the unexpected to happen when I’m at home, in my own city. After all, where's the fun in already knowing everything that’s going to happen?

Image source: Dara Muscat