ALL PLANS ARE CANCELLED

I began my travels with the intention of living in Mexico and then deciding from there what I would do. Only once I got stuck on my plan of travelling from Mexico to Colombia with no flights, I felt pressure from myself to stick to it, not truly considering the countries I am genuinely interested in visiting. I feel although I was trying to prove to not only myself, but everyone back home that I have a plan, and I have my shit together. That I can travel to 10 counties in a year, that I can pass through the entire of Central America without a flight. But I don’t know why I was trying to prove this to anyone but myself. Because in reality what is a plan for? To make you feel safe and secure to rid any anxiety.

Then I met someone, we had a profound conversation and it made me question what I have made this elaborate plan for. He asked me what’s the use in having this plan, and I didn’t have an answer. No answer except I had put this pressure on myself to visit these countries and do all of these things but in a check list order. Not simply because I wanted to be there, living in the moment. He taught me that a plan must be destroyed in order to see the beauty of what is around me. He told me to fall in love with places, and experiences and things, because no one actually cares whether I skip a country and don’t get to tick it off of my made up, self-pressurising list that I have created for myself.

Travellers have enough of a plan to exit their country and not look back. But I think I was missing the point of why I even wanted to travel in the first place. Travelling is the point of if I want to be somewhere new, I can just go, I can hope on a plane or a boat or a bus and take any opportunity to find these new experiences. I don’t know what I want in life, my anxiety often held me back from the possibility to go anywhere because I was so set on a plan. But if I don’t want to surf or dive, why am I going to places that are only for surfers or divers. I love nature and camping and beaches, so why aren’t I somewhere that provides that? Why am I rushing to countries that I don’t care about going to that much, all to just stick to a plan. A plan that I made to hide my anxiety of travelling into the unknown.

Starting with Lago de Atitlan in Guatemala, friends told me I would fall in love with the place and not want to leave, so I wanted to love the place so much. I didn’t feel in such a good headspace there, so I booked a bus for the following morning at 5am to head to El Salvador, and now here I am writing this post from a beautiful town in El Salvador, where I had no plans or intentions upon my arrival.

So, from now on, all plans are cancelled. If I wake up one day and decide I don’t like the place, or the country, or the people I am with. I will simply pack my bag and leave. No more plans. I am going to live in the moment, find the beauty in everything and travel my own way, no route necessary.