There's this girl I know. You might recognize her too. She loves her family something fierce, a large part of her social media feeds are of her family and maybe a selfie or fifty because, well she normally takes the pictures of everyone else.
She works hard, plays equally as hard. She is mom, chauffeur, counselor, physician. Equal parts disciplinarian and comedian. Attempts to keep schedules in her head and quite often makes mistakes. Boy does she ever make mistakes
She used to have a hobby that she loved, that hobby would take her to fun destinations to meet friends for weekends here and there. But this specific girl, lost her love for that activity. Started thinking about the whole "you have eighteen summers" thing and upon realizing that she was getting closer to the smaller end of that countdown decided to take a break for a bit.
You might have guessed it by now, this girl is me. But really I think any Mom/parent/adult figure can see parts of themselves in varying degrees/aspects in my story.
I used to get so worked up leading to weekends without family that I couldn't sleep and would have panic attacks leading up to and during my trip. I was often asked about "leaving" my family on the regular. I was met either with a hard judgey side-eye or a high five. Neither of which should be warranted really.
As I'm typing this I'm on a plane home from a crazy short weekend trip to where else? Orlando.
I met a friend, mostly flew by the seats of our pants but I checked off an agenda that I had in my head, that I didn't even know that I had.
I met a friend, mostly flew by the seats of our pants but I checked off an agenda that I had in my head, that I didn't even know that I had.
I did a bunch of new things, revisited some old favorites. Enjoyed amazing food and great company. I'm coming home exhausted but recharged. Relaxed but energized. The best part anxiety and guilt over what other people think did not weigh me down.
There will be more I want to share from this weekend. But if you've gotten this far and see yourself in any of this, my recommendation is this, take the trip.
Do you, be unabashedly you, the non-parental figure you, grab a friend and go have some fun. It is so worth it.
