Day 11: Travelling during the pandemic

Am I the only one who gets anxious about travelling now?

I’m going to take a wild guess and assume that I’m not.

Before the pandemic struck, hopping on a plane was second nature to me. I was that rare type of frequent traveller who enjoyed the whole process, from being at the airport to all of the excitement that came during the build-up to the trip (minus packing – I hate packing).

This is sadly no longer the case.

I’m flying to Dubai next Thursday, and I’m already getting nervous about the flight, even though, from what I can tell, I don’t need to prepare much at all. I’ll get a PCR test to be on the safe side and make sure my vaccination certificate is available online (I’ll get a printed copy as a backup), but that’s all I need.

And yet, there’s this nagging fear that I’ll get to check-in and find I don’t have some obscure document I was meant to get. Or a new freak variant will appear and the rules will change while I’m on my way to the airport and ruin my trip.

Truth is, I cannot control the latter. That’s the world we live in right now – expect the unexpected and manage your expectations. To be fair, it’s something we should remind ourselves of on a regular basis because that’s life – you just never know what will happen. And yet, I miss the old days of easy travel. Of hopping on a plane and not having to worry about tests and forms and someone shoving foreign objects up my nose. Ugh.

And yes, I’m aware my passport(s) have made this easy for me in the past. I know that visa forms and intrusive approval interviews and the disclosing of bank statements are the reality for most people and that sucks. And the pandemic has made me realise even more what a privilege it is to have a “powerful” passport. I digress.

I’m not sure how to shake this feeling. Perhaps this anxiety is the new reality of travel? I mean, it’s understandable really, given what a shitstorm we’ve been through since 2020.

In reality, all I can do is hope for the best for next week. I’ve already postponed travelling so many times due to a fear of all of the above. But life is continuing to move on and it’s not waiting for anyone. So I’m getting on that damn jet plane in honour of the woman who this time two years back was sat by her window, alone, almost a month into one of the strictest lockdowns, wishing for her old life back.

It might never return, but I’d rather die trying to get even a semblance of it back than sit around wasting another minute of it.