The Adventure Woman I say "yes" to adventure and welcome opportunities. You only live once!

When I was 16 years old, the Lions Club asked me if I would like to travel to France, for six weeks, for free. I promptly told them no. My parents would never go for that. My curfew was 11 pm!

Two days later, my mom yelled at me for saying no. “You don’t say no to an opportunity like that! You say yes to great opportunities! So I told them you would go!”

Just like that, I was off on a great adventure.

Two other teenagers were part of the exchange program, Suzanne and April. Neither one spoke French.
We flew into Geneva, but our bags were still in New York. No problem. The airline would get them to us in France.

We get on the train to Lyons and that’s when April stands up in a panic. “Oh NO! Where’s my purse?” We look around, no purse.
April and I get off the train and turn around to grab the carry-ons from Suzanne. That's when the doors shut and the train starts moving. I shout through the open window to Suzanne: “Don’t get off this train! It goes straight to Lyons. We’ll find the purse and take the next train downtown, and rejoin you.” Suzanne nodded, and off went the train.

Thankfully, some nice lady found the purse, and turned it in. April does a quick check. Everything is still in there!
When we get to the downtown Geneva station, we see our original train is about to leave. April realizes her passport is in her carry-on luggage, which Suzanne has, on the train. On the other side of customs. So, I give the customs agent my best smile, and in broken French, explain my friend’s passport is on the train. He smiles and waves us through. We get on the train. The doors shut, and it takes off. We walk from one end of the train to the other. Twice. No Suzanne. I sit down, and start laughing hysterically. I can’t stop. To our fellow passengers, I look like a maniac American who is having a breakdown.

But it wasn’t a breakdown. I was letting go. I realized I had absolutely no control over this situation, and some day this would be a very funny story.

Ultimately, everyone and everything made it to Lyons, and no freaking out about it made that happen. It just worked out.

From that day on, whenever I travel and something seemingly goes “wrong”, I am incredibly calm and relaxed about it. After all, I have said yes to a great opportunity for adventure, and in my experience, even when things go “wrong”, they always work out in the end.

This is how I found my travel Zen.