33 days

I’m going to Italy next month. Actually, I am leaving in 33 days--not that I am counting or anything. 

I’ve been ready for a lot of things in life. I’ve always been ready for the next big marker to come-driver’s license, graduation, college, graduation, job, career, money, husband, family...you name it, I’ve probably hoped and dreamed for the day it would come. The waiting moments creep by like a slithering sloth. S-l-o-w. But before you know it, you’re beyond whatever stage you were waiting for and already waiting for the next one. 

I’m sick of waiting. 

I know I'm ready for this trip, but honestly I don't think I really know just how ready I am. In fact, both of us going feel exactly the same. We bought our tickets back in May (although we'd been planning on it for much longer) and that sealed the deal. 

We had a ticket to Rome and a ticket home and that's all the mattered. What happened in between was up for grabs, and we were totally OK with that. The only bummer part was the ticket home...

However, with 4 months to go until D-day, we opted for at least attempting to plan and save for the trip. 

We are both beyond excited and can’t wait for the trip to be here. While part of me wants to make sure I enjoy the planning process and the excitement of planning, the other part of me just wants to be there. You know how I mentioned that I’m sick of waiting? Well, I’m not waiting any longer, I’m doing. I bought the ticket. I’m going. I’m figuring this out as I go, planning what I can, saving what I can, and then-I’m just going.  

Everyone I talk to says either "I wish I had gone to Europe in my 20’s" or  "I’m so glad I went to Europe in my 20’s." Since the common denominator in both statements is “go to Europe”, I’m going to Europe. I refuse to wait around for things to happen to me, so I’m taking hold of this trip and making it happen. It’s too easy to live life thinking, “woe is me, my life sucks, when will good things happen to me?” But here is the thing, while for some people things happen to them, for the other 99% of us we have to MAKE things happen. Work hard, fight hard, run hard, maybe crash and burn a few times, then pick yourself up and do it again. But the result is worth it. Or so I've heard. 

We’ve had to fight for this trip. Let’s start first by saying (and I think we’d both agree on this), we’re poor. So by default, the cards are stacked against us. We also work at a job where it’s relatively impossible to get a weekend off, much less enough days to travel abroad.  Then there are the car problems. The car repairs. The rent. The bills. The unexpected expenses. When to go. Who to go with. How to get there. 

Will it be worth it? 

Absolutely. 

Without a doubt. 

Yes. 

Our list of hurdles to jump might not sound all that dramatic to you. They may seem trivial or mundane and to some extent you are correct--everyone comes across these hurdles in life. But, if those problems weren’t such a big deal, then why doesn’t EVERYONE go to Italy? Or Paris. Or Bora Bora. Or Fiji. Or Hawaii. Or wherever your little heart desires to go. 

We are fighting to make this trip happen. It’s our light at the end of the tunnel. Our hope. Our joy. The thing we think about when we are sick of thinking. 

I’m not very good at “living a little.” I think too much, I worry, I budget, I scrimp. I don’t take risks and change gives me anxiety. But I desperately want to live a little. Take a chance, be spontaneous and maybe a little unsafe. I want to try things and experience life in the way I can only experience it now. I am single, unattached, young, and these things are quickly fleeting. At 24, I still have so much ahead of me, but all I can really embrace is what I have RIGHT NOW. 

And this trip is what I have, RIGHT NOW. Well, in 33 days to be exact. But for a girl who’s probably been planning her wedding since she was 8 (that would be 5,840 days ago), I’d say 34 days is pretty darn close to NOW.