It’s always been much easier for me to book plane tickets rather than confess my deepest darkest secrets. No, I’m not the type of person who goes somewhere new every month, but when I do manage to scrape up enough money, I am itching to get away. It doesn’t have to be far away, but sometimes I think the farther away, the better. Hopping on a plane is something so familiar, something I don’t even really think too much about anymore.
Which is why it’s almost become my default state of mind. Too many changes going on in my life? Booking a ticket to visit my family in Missouri. Not sure what’s going to happen with the guy I’m talking to? Well, I don’t give a shit, I’m spending the summer in Europe. This has become my mentality, and while I encourage everyone to see as much of the world as they possibly can, I don’t think completely ignoring our feelings is the way to go.
I guess this is why the fact that I own a sweatshirt that says, “Catch Flights, Not Feelings” is a bit of an ironic statement. We would have never gotten on that plane if we hadn’t felt that feeling to go somewhere new in the first place. We certainly wouldn’t have spent a year and a half saving for it, either. Without feelings, we wouldn’t even have any desire to travel, right?
Last weekend, I was waiting in line at a coffee shop and the guy standing in front of me asked me what my shirt meant. “Oh, it’s just an expression, I travel a lot,” I told him, waving it off like it was nothing. “That’s pretty deep,” is what he said shortly after his Americano was ready. I thought about it, and you know what, it is pretty deep.
It’s not just about running away from your problems, or choosing to ignore your feelings because it’s the easy way out. I believe that the “Not Feelings” part has a lot to do with letting our fears go, so that we ultimately feel nothing, mostly so we can step on the plane. There’s a thousand different voices in our head shouting, “What are you thinking? Are you out of your mind?” but it is up to us to take that leap of faith.
Once we do, we can make more room for the feelings that we actually want to feel. Feelings that we have never felt before because we are about to do things that we never imagined we would do. Feelings that scare us, but in a good way. At the same time, I caution you to avoid feelings that others believe you are supposed to feel because it’s the socially acceptable thing to do. Your twenties are your selfish years, don’t try and chase feelings (or someone) that isn’t even really there; your time will come. The best thing you can do is hop on that plane and learn as much as you can about yourself before you open up those beautiful feelings to someone else.
