So, I'm going to Japan! The other day my boyfriend and I bought plane tickets to Tokyo, leaving mid-May and returning mid-June. He has been planning for this trip all through college (he's about to graduate from a very intense five-year program) and invited me to go with him more than a year ago. Since then I've been debating whether or not I should. Wanting to go was never a question -- it was all about whether I could afford to go. And being afraid. And wondering even if I could save the money, should I really spend it?
Since finally buying the ticket I have told very few people about it. I guess I worry about what they will think. Will they say I'm being irresponsible spending money on something amazing but unnecessary?
I've wanted to travel for as long as I can remember. As a little kid I dreamed about what faraway places might be like. In high school I cut out travel articles from newspapers and magazines and pasted them into a book of places I needed to visit someday. In college I continued fantasizing and thinking "someday..." I figured it would happen eventually. When I had a good income. When I was more of a real grown-up.
I've wanted to travel for as long as I can remember. As a little kid I dreamed about what faraway places might be like. In high school I cut out travel articles from newspapers and magazines and pasted them into a book of places I needed to visit someday. In college I continued fantasizing and thinking "someday..." I figured it would happen eventually. When I had a good income. When I was more of a real grown-up.
But when debating with myself whether or not I wanted to take this trip, no matter how many times I almost said no, I kept turning back to the question: if not now, then when will the next opportunity be? When I finish grad school I will have my student loans to pay back, and less time off. Whereas now, I have savings that can hopefully be replenished by staying with my parents for the remainder of the summer and taking back my old tutoring job for a summer program at my undergrad. The period of time between when my academic-year jobs in Boston end for the summer and when that tutoring job begins is the perfect window for the trip.
I am not usually one to take chances, especially financially. I am always cautious, worrying about making the wrong decision. But I have been deliberating about this trip for more than a year and I decided to take the plunge for once. I don't want to have big regrets. I already regret not studying abroad in college -- I always had some excuse, like a boyfriend I didn't want to leave or a job from which I was afraid of asking for time off. I know that if I don't take the chance to go on this trip I will regret it.
I am still trying to get myself to really be excited about it instead of worrying. I'm looking for a temporary third job to start replacing some savings, and trying to cut a lot of things out of my budget.
And I'm slowly realizing that in three months I will be roaming the crazy streets of Tokyo and placing a long-awaited checkmark next to a place on my decade-old travel list.
