I thought this week would be a good week to talk about that terrible little green-eyed monster. Well maybe not truly jealousy, but maybe just a little bit.

With Katie taking off next month for her week-long solo adventure in England, I have to say that I am feeling a bit of that FOMO, Fear of Missing Out. It isn’t that I don’t want her to go. I do. I want her to experience all the sites and take in this new quest of solo travel for all the challenges and personal growth it will offer. A right of passage that she has earned and that, though difficult when you worry (unnecessarily sometimes) about your best friends, you excitedly wish to see them conquer. It isn’t even jealousy, that she is going and that I am not (this time). It is more that I will miss out on the firsts. There are places she will see for the first time, which we had planned to see together, without me. We will see them again when we go together next year, but it won’t be her first time experiencing them.

So, how am I overcoming FOMO?

Well, I’m trying to be involved and excited with her planning process in any way that she needs or wants my help. There is a reason we travel together, beyond that we greatly enjoy traveling and spending time together. We travel well together and the planning process is easy for us because we both have strengths and we tend to work within the strengths we have. Some things, I just have a natural interest and penchant for planning and others are entirely Katie’s gig. So, I help with some of the research she could use a hand with, and then she talks through her options with me as she lets her brain sift through the pros and cons. Ultimately it is her choice, but a sounding board is a good thing to have, so I’m that sometimes.

I’m focusing on our next trip on my end to help overcome the FOMO as well. By focusing on our trip and when the best time to go and places we can see, I’m not worrying as much about missing out of the firsts she will be experiencing on this trip and instead I’m focused on the firsts we will have together.

Another way that I’m working to overcome the FOMO as it gets closer to her great adventure, is to work on our photo album from our last great adventure, the one that started it all in 2016. Because I took over 1000 images on my Nikon alone (and about 800 or more on my phone), I have a lot to go through. Then, it will be onto our Boston adventure from 2017.

And lastly, when Katie is off on her adventure, I plan to follow every post, every photo, every live session ad every skype I can along the way so that we can sit down and have a coffee skype date when she gets home and gush over all her adventures and laugh at the crazyiness that she encounters.

It is hard to miss out on adventures, but we have to step back and allow others to grow in ways that solo-travel can only water that soul. We all have a right of passage that comes with life and the adventure of travel, we need to rejoice when others get their chance to take it.

“Keep your heart open, a suitcase packed and travel often for the world is wide and adventure awaits.” ~ Emylee