Travel Reflections of a Romantic Idealist
Travel, much like everything else in life, I think, is rarely what we expect it to be. We learn, experience, and feel what we’re meant to, rather than what we think we should.
I went into my trip to Spain with a lot of optimism and expectation, I can fully admit now that I put a lot of pressure on this trip to be an answer for what I wanted in my next chapter of life. I wanted to get swept away by Spain, meet a man, fall in love with the culture and want to move there. Pretty lofty for a packed, preplanned group trip made up of 9 single women. What can I say? This girl’s an idealist.
Here's what I actually experienced, learned and felt; positive, negative and everything in between.
I'm stronger and more coordinated than I give myself credit for. I paddle boarded standing up (without falling in, I might add) and biked through the streets of Madrid IN TRAFFIC, with cars and buses. And I'm really proud of that.
I need to do more of the things I enjoy for the sake of joy even if that means doing them alone. Nothing like a short amount of free time on a group trip to make me remember how much I actually like to do some things on my own. This is a block I didn’t know I still have; doing things with the group always so I don’t feel FOMO. *Adds to list of things to journal on*
I don't like big cities that don’t have charm or friendly people. Grunge, graffiti, and grey are three words that have never, and will never describe my vibe or style. I enjoyed my time the most in the smaller cities we visited like Sevilla. Traveling to larger cities makes me appreciate just how genuinely kind people in Pittsburgh are.
I also am not a big 'hotel' gal. There's no sense of home, no sense of encouraged community a honestly for me not a huge sense of safety. Nowhere to spread out. relax and unpack.
I love a little bit of bougie or charming in everything I do and everywhere I go. Shocking, right? But I think this is something I've denied in my past and something I want to work on reclaiming. I want to wear nice things, eat great food, stay in nice places, shop for good quality, get a massage or pedicure and just generally feel a little more high maintenance.
I love taking "forever" in museums, palaces and tours of most kinds. I love listening to people, the stories they have to tell, the history they know and learning more about different cultures and ways of life. And if I'm taking too long to soak that in, then maybe others are just in too much of a rush.
I love movement, as much as, if not more than I love relaxing and being sedentary. The days that we did activities were better than the ones we didn't. Movement gets me out of my head and I absolutely love walking around a small city or town with no agenda-Sevilla was the best for that.
Connecting with people is something I adore. It’s arguably my biggest strength. While I enjoyed sharing these experiences, and sometimes commiserating over them, with the women on the trip, I was left feeling a disappointed by the lack of connection with the people we came across in Spain. They weren’t as friendly as my little optimistic heart wanted.
In my experience, figuring out what you don't love usually gets you closer to what you do.
Going on this trip ended up being the reset I needed. It served as the reason to move out of an apartment that no longer felt like home, and a marker in time for me to change the things about my life that aren’t serving me anymore.
Spain is my opportunity to approach this new chapter of life differently. Embracing and addressing discomfort, surrendering more to making short term choices instead of figuring out the long term picture. Finding safety and delight in the process. Asking for support instead of trying to carry it all by myself.
And honestly, that's how we should all approach style. It's not about a permanent, fixed solution. It's about making small, aligned adjustments in the way we show up. We should make bite size changes that build on the knowledge we learned from our past selves to give us an authentic way to dress for where we're meant to go. We shouldn’t feel burnt out or like we have to start over again each time life throws us a change. We should feel confident that we’re equipped with all we need to move and grow through the next chapters of our lives.
xoxo
