A couple weeks ago I was helping my buddy George move his family. He’d borrowed a big truck with a lift gate on it and his young sons absolutely loved the fact that this thing went up and down. Any time we needed to move it, they wanted to ride on it. They would have been happy if we’d done nothing but raise and lower the gate while they were on it. They stayed camped out on the edge of the gate so that they wouldn’t miss the opportunity for a ride.
This all made George nervous as they were always near one edge or the other. If not that, they were in the way. He worked to communicate this to them but received the innocent confused “Why?” in response. Recalling similar events from my childhood, I replied something to the effect of “When you’re younger, all you can see is the fun in a situation. As you grow up, you tend to see all the bad things that could happen.” It was strange to have words come out of my mouth that sounded intelligent, patient and lacked sarcasm. I didn’t know I had it in me.
Anyway, that’s how I feel about traveling. I like being other places but traveling by myself to other places makes me nervous. I tend to focus on all the bad things that could happen. Last weekend I drove up to
Making the situation more nerve wracking for me is the fact that I tend to go up to Point in late Fall early Winter. It’s generally cold. It becomes a tension modifier. It’s one thing to have the car break down; it’s another thing to anticipate a breakdown in freezing temperatures.
A few years ago, I flew to
When I travel with people, I don’t have the same concerns. I think it’s because the weight’s not just on me. If the car breaks down, I’m there with someone. We can distract each other while waiting for help or work together to fix the problem. It’s not all on me anymore.
So, long story short, I had a good time in
