shelleyandjohn.com

John and I head off on our big adventure in just under three weeks, and while I think I should be feeling super-excited, I’m mostly feeling anxious and nervous.  “This is supposed to be fun!” I tell myself.  “You’re going on a six-month vacation!”  John tells me that once we’re off on our way that the excitement will come back.  I hope he’s right.  I’m sure he is.  I feel like this trip is the chance of a lifetime, and I don’t want to squander it.  It’s funny—I wasn’t nervous at all to marry John, but I’m nervous to go on vacation.  Cold feet to travel, I guess!

We’ve both been spending a lot of time thinking about what we hope to learn on our travels—at least, what we hope to learn about the outside world.  Goodness knows I’m sure we’ll learn a lot about our relationship, although on our (short) trips to date we’ve always had a great time.  I seem to get a little more spontaneous when we travel, instead of rigidly adhering to whatever plans I have in place on any particular day like I do at home.

I’m sure a lot of what we’ll actually learn will be things we can’t even imagine right now.  As much as I’m trying to prepare for the unexpected, I know it will be impossible to be fully—or even halfway—prepared.  I want to work to keep an open mind and to do my best to observe the different cultures we’re visiting without judging them.  I also hope to learn how people all around the world go about their daily lives and how through the Shamrock Foundation (my family’s foundation) we might help to make those lives a little bit safer and easier.

I really hope to not get too hung up on whatever hang-ups we encounter, and to try to laugh at our mishaps.  John has already taught me that it’s possible to spend an entire day sightseeing without minding that a pigeon pooed in your hair.  I hope I’m as willing to laugh at whatever pitfalls I might encounter!

Thanks to an eye-opening suggestion from my good friend Beca Beeman, I may try to take a journalistic approach for my contributions to this blog, maybe all the time (well, from this point forward, or once our trip gets underway, since I obviously haven’t done so in this entry) or maybe just some of the time.  Rather than always or only writing about my feelings or impressions of the places we visit, I’d like to see if I can write with a sort of reporter’s perspective.  We’ll see how it turns out!