Anxiety About Taking Vacations

When I was little I hated learning that I would be going to stay at another place with my family as we went on a special vacation. I was already content and used to sleeping in my own bedroom in my own house and hearing the news about going somewhere else that I wasn’t familiar with was enough to ruin my mood. This feeling lasted for days and I’d then started giving my family a hard time about it from really not wanting to get out of my comfort zone to try something that was new to me. 

         I was never given a choice because I would have always choose to stay home.  I will say that I wasn’t so bad on the ride there and on the actual vacation itself since my parents let me bring small pieces of personal entertainment with me such as some books or toys, which kept me calm enough to let the trip go smoothly for everyone else including myself.

         Sometimes they wouldn’t tell me until the last minute when we would have to pack up early in the morning to get ready to leave so I wouldn’t dwell on going on vacation. My parents brought me back to the same place every year, sometimes a couple times a year so that I would become comfortable with traveling and be more familiar with the area. They chose Lake George N.Y.  It’s become a home away from home to me. Although the area is different now, I have some with the best memories with family and friends there. 

Whenever we stayed in hotels I used to get very anxious about the possibility of unintentionally leaving any of my belongings behind and would constantly check over the room whenever we got ready to go back home. But once we bought a camper that I could leave these belongings in and they could stay there and I felt better knowing my belongings would be there when the vacation was over.

One of biggest road trips was to Wyoming, 35 hours in the car one way with only stopping for gas and food.  

        Once I become better with traveling with took a plane to Seattle, Washington. That was my first time flying and one of the flights I had to fly near total strangers. I am glad I like to travel now because I have seen 30 of the U.S. states to date. 

From Ticonderoga, New York. 2008.