My Thoughts: On Fearing the Unknown

My arms are sore. This morning I had two needles forced into the flesh of left and right deltoids, all in the worthy cause of protecting me against Hepatitis A and Diphtheria. Yes it's a little late (FYI optimum time for travel shots is five weeks before departure, not 1 week and a bit a la Bird) but I've been reassured that because we will be in Kuala Lumpur to begin with I "should" be okay.

There are a lot of "shoulds" floating around at the moment. We should do this before we go, we should do that to say goodbye, we should make sure we see them, and them and them and quite frankly my head starts to spin. Although we are only going for six months at most, saying goodbye and leaving is carrying an uncomfortable amount of weight and significance and I'm not sure why.

Or rather, I was unsure why, but I think I've got a good idea. It's the unknown. When life can change drastically, or even end, in a split second it is quite daunting to wonder what will happen in an extended period of split seconds for both us the travellers and for those we leave behind.

On the flip side of this I am thrilled by the uncertainty, by how good our trip could be. But here's where the "shoulds" turn to "coulds; this could happen, that could happen, we could get sick, we could get mugged, we could get hurt and worst of all, we could break up. It has shocked both of us that travel insurance for long stay trips offer such pitiful coverage for valuables and so we are focusing on the best medical coverage and ensuring our contingency budgets "could" cover us "should" the worst happen to our belongings.

My aching arms are a reminder that we have made sensible steps to protect ourselves from a lot of things, but ultimately nothing would protect us completely should the worst happen, which of course, it could . And thus I find yet again that travelling perfectly imitates life, because in reality this applies to the journey of life no matter how far you fly.