Four Days

Four days from today, my youngest daughter Avery and I will be leaving for England. This will be our first trip across the pond and we are both very excited. We will be traveling with Avery’s AP English class and we will be touring several literary locations throughout England. I am the only parent going and I had to ask Avery for permission to join her on this trip. My joining her on this trip had everything to do with seizing the opportunity and nothing to do with keeping an eye on my daughter.

All the plans are in place for me to have a room to myself so that Avery can have the fun bonding experience with the other kids on the trip. I am looking forward to the room alone, where I can enjoy my down time and regroup when we stop for the night. I am hoping that I will not embarrass Avery while we travel, but that is like spitting in the wind and expecting not to be hit when it flies back at you. I am so worried about Avery enjoying herself and my not stepping on her toes that I have caused myself a great amount of anxiety. Fact is I will do things that Avery may not like, but she will also do things that I will not like and I guarantee you that she is not worried about it one bit! Avery and I have a great relationship, we fight hard and we make up easy so odds are good that sometime during our ten days on the road both of those things will happen.

My best course of action is to focus on the trip ahead and the packing which totally sucks the life out of me. I am not someone who enjoys packing lightly. I prefer to have all the comforts of home with me so that I can feel good. I also like choices in clothing; a girl just never knows how she is going to feel until she wakes up and having choices readily at our fingertips is imperative. Reality is we will be on and off buses and trains and planes for ten days so packing light is really a good idea. I am really trying, and I won’t be naked but I will not have as many choices as I would like. I have already annoyed Avery by going back and forth between two sizes of suitcases. I know I should take the smaller one, but my heart is with the larger one. It would not be full, but I have myself convinced I will need the extra space on the way home, obviously I will find fabulous items that I will need to bring home with me. I will move everything over to the smaller case just to see what is best, but in the end I think I will be hauling the larger suitcase.

The next four days are jam packed with several activities so my hope is that time will fly, anxiety will diminish and packing will be completed without much more waffling about suitcase size and items needed for a girl on the go. Mostly I am just excited to share this amazing experience with my daughter, her teachers and classmates, and who knows, maybe I’ll make some new friends too.