Plan As A Verb
Happy Wednesday everyone - let’s get wandering!
For anyone who doesn't already know - I am a planner by nature, and my intrinsic love for planning has gotten many a trip out of the group chat… and also makes me a great travel agent, because I genuinely enjoy it. And it's a good thing too, because planning, of course, plays a huge role in travel.
After all, a dream can only become a goal with a plan. So many of my dream trips would never have happened had I not loved the process of planning it.
But one of the best pieces of advice I have ever received is to treat plan as a verb, not a noun. It is very easy and completely natural, so human of us, to get attached to a plan, and to cling to the ideas we have for the way things should or would ideally go. But travel is ultimately emblematic of life in the sense that it is unpredictable, ever changing, and control is a complete illusion.
So trying to treat the plan as a noun, unwilling to let it evolve as a verb, is ultimately a recipe for disappointment and frustration.
The start to my Euro-summer adventure this year is a perfect example of this. I had the most amazing plan - to fly from my first destination, Amsterdam, to meet a great friend of mine in Tirana, Albania for an epic journey from the capital to the northern countryside for hiking amidst landscapes that literally look like windows desktop screensavers.
But I could have never predicted the way that plan would fall apart. The craziest series of events beginning with a flight cancellation, turned the start of this dream trip into a full-blown nightmare. At the time, things really felt like they were repeatedly going from bad to worse. My first flight was canceled. I wasn't able to find any other direct flight from Amsterdam (or any of the surrounding major cities) to Tirana, Albania. They didn't exist.
So, after researching plan B, C, D, E, F, G - all the way through what felt like plan Z… I finally found it looked like the only way for me to to get to the general vicinity of where I needed to be was to take a four-hour train, a quite expensive one at that, to Frankfurt, Germany, where I could then fly to the capital of Montenegro instead.
From there, I'd be able to take a bus that would get me to, not the first destination I was supposed to be with my friend, but at least the second. So I would only miss the first leg of our journey. Well, that plan Z did not work out either, because as I went to bed the night before my train and subsequent plane, I received yet another flight cancellation email.
Adding insult to injury, I found out the next day, after missing my train (because I no longer thought I had a flight to catch), that the email was sent in error. My flight wasn't canceled. So after learning that the flight wasn't actually canceled, I began the most hectic travel day of my life, booking a last-minute, super expensive train on a hope and a prayer that I would make it in time.
The train was delayed substantially. And upon arrival to the airport in Germany, many punctual airport employees were quite upset with me for my late arrival. Even though it really wasn't my fault I had received a false notification.
In the end, by literally a matter of mere minutes, I made the flight. But on the other end of it, I got sick in the capital of Montenegro and couldn't make it to Albania for the gorgeous hikes that we had planned. Everything I originally intended for the start of this trip did not go as planned. And had I not had the advice in mind to treat plan as a verb, I may have been entirely disappointed and discouraged from continuing on this epic adventure.
But if there's anything I've learned over the years, it's that no matter how seasoned of a traveler you are, things are going to go sideways. Inevitably, things will go wrong. It's not about things going the way you hoped they would. It's about the attitude that you have when you have to go to plan B or C or D, or even plan Z.
I made the most of the time that I had in Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro, a stop I never intended to make on this trip. It was a very cool city, and I had a beautiful, comfortable space to recover while I wasn't feeling well. And after that, I did eventually make it to meet my friend, and we shared an amazing five days together exploring the gorgeous coastline of Montenegro as originally planned.
So part of the plan did happen, and the other didn't… but I'm having the most magical adventure nonetheless. So don't let deviations from the original plan ruin your experience of travel.
You'll be pleasantly surprised by the magic you encounter when you consciously choose to meet the challenges, the plot twists, the unexpected detours, when you meet them all with a smile… that's where the real magic begins.
So don't get in your head and lock yourself into the way it was supposed to go, or what should happen. Instead, embrace the uncertainty and the unpredictability of it all, and let the real magic begin.
And remember, even when it doesn't feel magical, travel will teach you just how resilient, creative, and capable you are of handling any challenge that may come your way. So turn your losses into lessons and embrace plan Z.
The journey might not look the way you thought it would, but that doesn't mean it's not still a trip worth taking.
xoxo - kell
