We’re plan killer trips and activities for the summer. This year we’re really going to “live it up”. Despite the drive to do and see it all, if you’re anything like me, when it comes down to the wire, exciting plans can actually be scary.

My Adventure Dilemma

This summer I’m meeting my best friend in San Diego for a month long camping, hiking, and Vegas-ing trip across seven West Coast states. It should be a blast, but it hasn’t hit me that the trip is happening yet. I know everyone has trouble grasping reality sometimes, but for people with anxiety, it’s actually a coping method.

Last Summer: 21 in Downtown L.A.

To elaborate on this method a bit more, I’ll explain last summer’s shenanigans. My best friend and I got to spend our 21st birthdays club hopping and mechanical bull riding in downtown LA then recovering in our own, private beach house. I mention this because, for two girls raised humbly in a small Pennsylvania town, we were more than grateful and astonished by the experience. Our birthday celebration was just one of the crazy, awesome memories made during our travels. Though I tried surfing for the first time, survived the most dangerous hike in San Diego, and returned with a new tattoo, I didn’t enjoy the trip to its full potential.

How Anxiety Impacts Our Plans

I’ve struggled with crippling anxiety my entire life. I couldn’t take a plane to Disney with my family for a few days without feeling virtually paralyzed. How’d I manage to travel to California on my own and stay for over a month?

Well, I found problems outside of my trip to worry about: college, health, sleep, home relationships. I thought about everything that was or could go wrong. It worked because it kept me numb from the scary and exciting adventure right in front of my face but it kept me from really living during my travels. Though we still do the activities that make us anxious, sometimes we're not really living in the moment.

How Anxiety Actually Helps Us

What many people don’t know is that anxiety is helpful, in a weird way. Anxiety not only means we care and feel strongly about something, those sick, sad, and generally unwell feelings are an excuse not to give life our all. And it’s not because we’re lazy! In fact, it’s often the opposite! Anxiety distracts us from the big picture so that we can function in those scary situations at all.

Last summer, I didn’t always open up with my best friend, try everything I wanted to, or (In the words of Eminem) truly lose myself in the moment. Not feeling well was my excuse. It sounds strange, but if I didn’t have these pesky symptoms of anxiety to distract me from facing the whole trip head on, I probably would have been too terrified to go.

Why We Cannot Let it Ruin Our Summers

The reality of my upcoming adventure hasn’t hit me because I’m worrying about small home, school, and work problems instead of what’s really scaring me:

• sitting on a plane for hours
• ruffing it in deserts and forests,
• running out of money,
• getting lost,
• (and mostly) being out of control with no way home.

Though I’m using my travels as an example, for those of us with anxiety, it’s present in almost every facet of our lives. Whether we plan to adventure or simply sunbathe with friends, if we break plans or get so wrapped up in our feelings that we lose touch with the moment, we’re not really living.

So How Can We Make this the best summer yet?

Though opening up, committing to plans, and trying unfamiliar things is overwhelming, they’re the best parts of life! If we’re going to fret over everything, might as well fret over what’s right in front of us! Instead of making excuses like, “I don’t feel well”, “I don’t have the money”, “I should say calm and work on my own well-being before going out” let’s work on our well-being by forgetting about it.

I know, much easier said than done. I’m the girl who still hasn’t processed the idea of a month long excursion in less than two weeks but, I speak the truth. The main concept we must remember is to live in the moment and just do it! Though new things are scary, obsessing over our worries is scary too. At least when we try new things that scare us, we have great stories to tell.

When it comes down to the wire this summer, whether you’re debating travel, beginning a romantic fling, or just hanging out with new people, remember, though it may be scary, a life un-lived is even scarier. School is out and the best time is now! Let's make this the summer of a lifetime!