“Fear of travel” or “Gateway to Joy”

My first time experiencing the true joy of traveling!!!

Travel is not only a word which comprises six letters, but something is worth experienced in your whole life. It is not something you can do once or twice because it is a thirst that cannot be satisfied by drinking it and instead of all increasing day by day. That is what travel for me!

It may be different for you but believe me, once you get the courage to take the step forward, you will no longer be able to take it back.

I remember my first experience (fear of travel to the gateway to heaven) when I told to get ready for a business trip to Serbia at last minute which I had refused due to the fact that I was scared of never been to any foreign country before and top of that never set on a plane so due to all worries, I had decided not to go. But not so long I was able to push “no travel” as after a few days another trip came to me and that time, I had no excuse to make but to prepare myself for travel. Then I decided to enjoy myself like others and doing flaunt. 

Initially, I was enjoying the pre-tour preparation but at the same time I was worried too that “How will I do the check-in, immigration, baggage, and so on”. Even though I create an easy environment for the first-time traveler being a travel advisor then also my fear overpowered my knowledge and desire to travel and because of that I felt like to say “No” once again but I cannot this time and so I had decided to face the “fear of travel”.

Now the D Day came, and I had to leave from the evening flight to “Sanya – Hawaii of China”. I was too happy from outside but actually, I was scared and fearful to be alone to travel to other nation where you may find the language barrier and other problems like snatching, looting and other immigration-related problems (these things I saw in Hindi movies earlier which is not true*) but then also I collected and pepped up myself for “Jo Hoga Dekha Jaega” like it was an exam. 

Then I took a cab in the evening, flaunting in front of my family that I am traveling & went to the airport to catch an international flight. I had reached at IGI terminal 3. Now my fear had gone and suddenly I realized that it is the time for me to do action without showing it to others that I am immature and this was my first time to face airport’s rituals (trust me it was like losing your breath). Apparently, I was lost and did not have a clue where to go until I met some of my colleagues from different companies who were traveling with me to the same destination coincidentally. 

Suddenly everything had changed from chaos to excitement and my thought process changed that now I do not need to do anything because they would help me and then I started followed them for each step and trust me it was only 4 steps for which I had worried. And the steps were “1. Boarding Pass + Baggage, 2. Immigration (cause of international flight), 3. Security Check 4. Boarding the flight” During the process of each step, I had so many thoughts like -

• Is this traveling? for which I am sending people from the last few years being a travel consultant.
• Sitting at the lobby and eating & drinking while waiting for an early morning flight. Is this the traveling I was scared of?
• Suddenly I felt something, and you know what, it was a real joy when I see different people around me with different age groups and cultures. They talk about business, cities, study, friends & family. They were laughing, eating, sleeping & playing at the airport. Some of them were discussing their whole backpack plan or about the country they were about to visit. It all felt like a big festival with a lot of celebration going on around me and this fascinated me most of it and inspired me to see the world by my own bare eyes.

In other words, I forgot my everyday routine while sitting in the lobby waiting for my flight. I had not thought of anything like - nine hours shift, house rent, metro travel, loans and most desiring for me to be successful. I forgot everything without even do yoga. And that was the push factor for me to think about traveling. I decided to travel the whole world (so many people have this dream and I am one of them) at that moment and that thought itself motivated me so high and gave me a reason to live and have a dream that no other deed can give.

This is what travel gives you and we call it a “Joy”. It is a perfect therapy to calm your soul, feel out of the world, regain your strength, avoid negative energy, and create the desire to want something.

This was the joy that I felt before even reaching the destination and I still am feeling joy when I look back into it….