This summer, for the first time, and certainly not the last, I am traveling alone. I remember spending the night before my flight tossing and turning in bed with countless anxieties. ohmygodohmygodohmygod my heart kept telling me, very loudly, in my chest and throat. What was I possibly thinking? I would stick out like a sore thumb in Latin America, with my blonde hair and blue eyes, and my oversized backpack made for my 300 pound football player of an uncle and an entire suitcase full of art supplies. I hadn’t spoken Spanish since high school, and I have the worst sense of direction of anybody I’ve met. (True story: in high school I sometimes used to exit my classrooms the wrong way, and I’d have to make it look like I meant to walk three strides to the right before turning around and heading towards my next class.) But soon my worst fears came creeping through the white noise… what if my parents were right? What if this was just one big, bad decision?

But I’ve learned so many things since that night about decisions and freedom. When you are on your own, you call your own shots. The freedom can be exhilarating and empowering, but it also has the power to leave you just as paralyzed as before, when you had to answer to family and friends. There will always be too many routes to take, too many people to meet, too many places to see- how can anyone possibly know which path is best?

I used to over think every decision I made, and rethink it over again once I had made the decision, but now I’m starting to realize that most choices are not as important as we think they are. Mistakes are inevitable, if you can even call them mistakes, because you can never know what each decision will bring until you try them out. During my travels I have found myself kicking myself in the butt for skipping over Costa Rica’s most beautiful beach, or for not talking to that cute boy at the bar. But each path taken is unique and has something to offer that could not be experienced in the same way had a different one been taken. And I have learned to remind myself that wherever I am, right now, is the best place to be. Of course, I have found myself in some inconvenient and even dangerous situations, but what makes me proud to call myself Annie Foxen from New York is not how I find myself there, but how I pull myself together and work my way out.