The Joy of Anticipation
In The New York Times piece “Travel and the Art of Anticipation”, author Stephanie Rosenbloom argues that in some way — perhaps not in such an obvious one — there’s a bright side to the pandemic. “Our current travel deficit may end up replenishing our wonder of exploring,” she writes.
She supports that with a mention of Elizabeth Dunn, a professor at the Department of Psychology at the University of British Columbia. “Being a world traveler — or just feeling like one — may undermine our proclivity to savor visits to enjoyable but unextraordinary destinations”.
I can’t agree more with both Rosenbloom and Dr. Dunn.
As a co-founder of an online travel agency, I’m an evangelist, guardian, and ambassador of travel. So it might be strange for you to hear me say: this pause has done wonders for our sense of imagination and our joys of anticipation.
There’s a truth to the age-old you don’t know what you have until it’s gone. Perhaps travel has become so accessible and so affordable that we frequently took it for granted. We began to taken trips left and right and somehow, stopped anticipating. Wait, what? Wasn’t that one of the best parts?
Don’t get me wrong — I’m ecstatic that the world has been accessible in ways that it hasn’t always been before (there’s a reason our slogan at CuddlyNest is “Travel is for everyone”, and I’ll fight tooth and nail to make travel available for all).
I’m fortunate to have traveled to over 100 countries at this point, sometimes staying at hostels, sometimes at hotels, other times at vacation homes, sometimes in the city center, sometimes in the outskirts. I’ve varied it up and have taken every approach I could have.
And yet, I’ll admit that my sense of wonder diminished at certain moments. There have been moments where I’ve chosen to stay in to stream a comedy instead of venturing out to explore a new city. I had been fatigued and needed the rest. It’s only natural.
Over the past year, I had the chance to sit down, pause, and spent most of the year in Split, Croatia. I booked myself a vacation home and spent my days at an extended stay at my new home-away-from-home with staycations here and there.
During this time, I observed the way the blue of the Dalmatian coast changed from one season to the next. I eventually started to recognize the faces of the morning joggers along the Riva. My local artisan coffee shop, kava2, learned how I like my coffee. I hadn’t had that experience in a long time. It’s been a good time.
When travel is back at full force, there will be a moment where we cherish the smallest bits of every part of the journey. That first trip we take — which will hopefully be coming up over the next month, or two, or three — will be like our first trip, ever. And as we wait for travel to return, we can take the time to anticipate it.
I plan on going to lots of places once again, but once the anticipation starts weaning off, I’ll know how to cater to it. There’s no space for apathy when it comes to exploration. I won’t allow it.
