Travel Anxiety and Confidence Building

Each and every #FYCE trip brings with it some anxiety for me.  I physically feel like I need to pee, my brain becomes unfocused and I feel afraid.  I told my partner this morning that I bet a lot of people don't travel at all because they can't withstand or endure these feelings.  I worry that I have missed packing something important, that I will lose my hiking poles, that my computer will be destroyed on the trip, that I will not be able to sleep, that I forgot to tell someone that I love them or that I didn't make a deadline, etc.

The evolved part of me sees this as normal.  The now experienced traveler in me recognizes these feelings as part of the process.  The perfectionist in me is disappointed and even mad that I am having these feelings which leads to a spiral of more bad feelings.

Traveling is not an easy thing for people who come from few resources.  I grew up in Gardena, California and to me San Francisco was a different planet.  Now I travel every year and do so with vigor and power...and I still experience anxiety.  The reason I started Foster Youth Cultural Exchange was to support foster youth to dream big and take a bite of the apples that are in front of them that they can't even see.

Many former foster youth buy $500, $800, $1000 cell phones.  Some have designer purses or fancy ass tennis shoes that they re-purchase every year.  Once a youth insisted on taking me out to dinner and we went to Denny's and they ordered shrimp and their bill was $75 (at Denny's!)  While it is true that  many foster youth and former foster youth struggle to make ends meet, it is also true that many of us end up with money to spend on concerts, sports events, fancy jerseys, grills for our teeth, etc.  But we still don't think we can travel!  We don't know that the money spent on stuff could also be used for travel.

I was one of those young people.  I never believed I could travel because I didn't see myself like I saw travelers.  They seemed privileged.  Out of range.  And it wasn't until I started seeing friends take trips and asked how they managed the funds and watched them do it... it was then that I realized I could do it too!

Foster Youth Cultural Exchange partners with youth to dream big and we show them how it can be done.  We teach about purchasing tickets, researching deals, how to travel on a budget, how to share costs, etc.  And because we have now successfully done it 4 times other fosters believe it can be done.  They see their friends in photos from South Africa, or the Philippines or Guatemala and even in my new home country, New Zealand!

Off to Peru we go, one by one we will leave for airports, get buckled into seats, overcome any delays, find our meeting spots, check into hostels, jump on buses, trains, domestic flights, translate money and time zones and languages.  I'm proud to be part of something that helps build confidence in youth to do something they could never have dreamed of without us.  And when they return they are never the same.  They travel more.  They talk more.  They share more.  They have trinkets and clothing that launch stories of adventure and fearlessness.  Or maybe there was fear, but it was overcome.

Each time I travel I have to wade through anxiety, fear and uncertainty...then you get your sea legs.  Thank you to all the supporters of this awesome project that help all of us grow our power and strength in the world. #confidencerocks #buildconfidencethroughtravel