I had an exciting moment last week while traveling.
We were on our second trip coming from England to France on the Eurostar train. From the moment we entered St. Pancras train station in London, I felt a tiny bit of familiarity.
I’d been there before. I knew where I was going, and I knew what to do. However, I hadn’t appreciated it in the moment, because it didn’t really dawn on me. That would be later.
I remembered the first time we went there we didn’t give ourselves extra time, and getting through security was a tad stressful with so many unknowns. After finally getting through to the waiting area, we found it was already crowded with not much room to unload our heavy bags and relax.
But, this second time was different.
I knew we should give ourselves more time. And, we did.
We breezed through security, immigration, and guess what? The waiting area was mostly vacant so we could stretch out and have our pick of seats. I knew something was different, clearly… Again though, I hadn’t yet put my finger on it.
Then, we were on the train and it hit me.
I had this moment where I recognized that my comfort level had gone up a notch.
The feeling of experience settled over me.
It was like my “travel legs” got stronger. (You know how people on boats get “sea legs” after having been on the boat for a while. It was like that.)
To tell you the truth, I felt a bit more cool and proud of myself. I am actually a world traveler. Like, it’s official.
This was becoming my new norm. The neurons were firing and wiring together.
This clearly had multiple benefits.
Most notably… with everything being a bit familiar, I was able to relax more. This enabled me to see and feel more of the whole experience, because I was simply less distracted by overwhelming travel “newness” information.
I hadn’t anticipated this new feeling. I love it. I look forward to seeing more new parts of the world, but also going back to seeing ones I’ve already visited, with more relaxed eyes.
Traveling just got easier. For my whole family.
So, we’re in France for the last weeks of June and the beginning of July. The weather has been beautiful, meat is expensive again, the crepes are amazing, and we’re looking forward to Greg’s mom and his business partner joining us for some time in Paris.
Oh, and I’m drinking coffee again, because well… that’s a story for another post.
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