They Say It’s Your Birthday

As if taking off on a year-long trip wouldn’t be a whirlwind enough on any old day of the year, I’ve chosen to begin this journey on my birthday. Attempting to field calls from family and close friends—or at least to fire off responsive “thank you” texts to well-wishers—I wonder what I was thinking when I decided to have these two events converge. That wasn’t the original plan. The original plan was to travel for a calendar year, January 1 to December 31. But a commitment to work with a non-profit in Arizona doing essential home repairs for lower-income families over the New Year (will share more about that another time) pushed my start into mid-January. And then work obligations—did I mention I plan to still work some while on this journey?—kept pushing the departure date until it began approaching my birthday in mid-May. That seemed kind of poetic: to spend one whole trip around the sun, demarcated on both ends by my birthday, circumnavigating the globe. Plus, I’ve always had a bit of a flair for the dramatic! 😊

Along with the substantial change in departure date came a significant change in route. Originally, it made sense to start from Los Angeles and head west, maybe do a week in Hawai’i 🌴 to unwind before beginning my global travels in earnest in New Zealand. Heading to the southern hemisphere in January—with a plan to keep heading west and eventually swing up into Europe—seemed a plausible way to stay in nearly perpetual summer/fall and to avoid extremely hot or cold temperatures altogether. But as January slipped to February, and February slid to March 📆, it became clear I would not reach India, heading west from New Zealand and making multiple stops along the way, before it became unbearably hot on the subcontinent. So I reversed direction. Literally. ⬅

Instead of leaping from the west coast and heading west, I am hopping the Pond and circling the globe heading east (in rough terms). On my sabbatical to South America in 2015, I discovered that one of the beautiful things about traveling with no set itinerary is that disruptive changes can’t occur—or at least they are much less likely if you are only planning a couple of weeks out at a time. 🗓️ AND, from a more affirmative perspective, planning with a shorter horizon also retains the ability and freedom to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves along the way. My South American trip turned from four weeks to five, because some of the component journeys were taking longer than anticipated and I was enjoying myself too much to rush through the remaining locations. This I plan to keep front of mind throughout this journey; to really be in the moment as much as possible and open to the experiences that I am not able to fathom right now, much less plan in advance. ⏱️

What I know as I board my afternoon 🇬🇧 British Airways flight from LAX on my birthday is that it will take me to 💂🏼‍♀️ London Heathrow, where I will transfer to another British Airways flight to Athens 🏛️, where I will transfer to an 🇬🇷Aegean Air flight to Mykonos. I know I have accommodations and transportation arranged for ten days and that I will start making plans for the next ten days after I am situated in Mykonos. I know that in the scurry of final packing and the inevitable (for me) scramble to the airport, the birthday wishes 🧁 keep rollin’ in—and I know it’s going to be one hell of a year! 🙌 #NoDayBuToday