BY SARA SHEIBANI
A TRAVELED WORRIER’S
courage
T
SARA SHEIBANI, PARIS, FRANCE
he relationship I have with travel is complicated. One would think that I would have felt confident with almost two decades of traveling across the U.S. and internationally as I left to study abroad in France. Unfortunately, the ‘anything could go wrong mentality’ from my mother and random news articles made me a very worried yet well voyaged traveller. My view of travel and courage has been shaped by this contrast of my vast travel experience yet constant worries.
What brought me to France was a confusing freshman year, over six years of French classes, and an accepted IAP application to a French language institute in the small ville of Tours. Traveling has always been a sort of escape for me, both physically and mentally. Even though I am often worried about what could go wrong, being in a new place makes it okay. Over the years my successful trips have made my pretravel worries dissipate and gave me more courage. However, facing my first solo international travel I felt like I was not starting a new chapter but as if I was picking up a new book with no information. Before I was able to get to my small French town, I had to board a plane from Chicago to Stockholm, then Stockholm to Paris with hopefully all my baggage and no missed flights. Walking to the security line at O’Hare by myself is when it hit me that I would be travelling alone. All the possible mishaps made me feel a jolt of worry and short of air. This wasn’t the last time I felt this, but it was the worst of the summer. Going through the motions of security helped bring my heart rate back down but then I had to wait for hours, alone
