I'm remembering the first time I ever traveled by plane internationally ON MY OWN. I was very nervous about it.  I was 19 years old and I was going to visit my parents in Spain. I was a very anxious teen. Anxious about everything. And the thought of everything going as planned between Birmingham, Alabama and Oviedo, Spain seemed nearly impossible. So many things could go wrong! I could miss a flight. I could get on the wrong plane. I could lose my luggage. I could be mugged. The list goes on an on. Welcome to the world of an over-active imagination paired with too much worry.
Anyway, I was sharing some of these fears with some upperclassmen-brotherly types over lunch towards the end of the semester, and they had a brilliant idea. They suggested the possibility that this first trip was truly an adventure for me, and I should embrace it as such. I wasn't buying it. They were also missionary kids going home to their parents for the summer - one to Korea and one to Indonesia. They started talking about the flights, and the different airports they'd be in, and then started laughing about the differences between American toilets and foreign toilets (they ARE boys...). Then one of them said, "Hey! Let's do a bathroom check at all the airports we go through on our trips!"  The other one said, "Yeah, Lisa! The Great World Bathroom Check! You check the ones between here and Madrid and then your home airport and we'll check the ones on the way to Asia. Deal? It'll be an adventure!"
Such great friends/brothers. Give her a task so perhaps she'll be distracted from her anxiety. And remind her that it's all an adventure. Anything new? Adventure. Anxious? It's an adventure! For a girl who grew up on a steady diet of adventure novels for kids, how could I refuse?
I checked my Southern bathrooms in Birmingham and Atlanta, but once I got to New York I gave up. I basically held my breath and my bladder until I boarded the airplane. I practically kissed the ground when I arrived in Madrid (I did use the facilities on the plane). And once I got home, I was good.
Adventure is a good thing. It's very scary sometimes, but oh the stories you can tell when you arrive at your destination. Not to mention the stories you can tell while on the journey to the people you meet along the way!
This trip is going to be hard and scary. And hard. But if I don't look at it like an adventure, how am I even going to take the first step? Just like that first step off a cliff when rappelling - it's scary as hell, but the reward of actually doing such a brave (crazy say some) thing is great.
This trip is different in that it involves a fight to stay alive. The biggest adventure I've ever been on.