The first time I went snorkeling around Apo Island in the Philippines, I was excited. If anyone knows anything about the inside workings of my little head, they'll know that it has editorializing tendencies and, learning to keep my thoughts somewhat rational and my expectations low is a challenge and really something I've had to work on during my travels. "Plant an expectation, reap a disappointment", it's true. Anyways, the first time I went snorkeling around Apo, I was WAY excited, I had heard how amazing it was from so many people, so, I had to WILL my brain not to editorialize. But, of course, as usual, it wasn't playing along...
Me: We're going snorkeling around Apo Island.
My Brain: Are you effing kidding me? WOWZER, WE'RE GOING SNORKELING AROUND APO ISLAND. THIS IS GOING TO BE THE BEST THING EVER.
Me: Nooo no no. We are not going to go into this with high hopes. We are going to expect nothing, and if something good happens, we will be pleasantly surprised.
Brain: I AM GOING TO EXPECT EVERYTHING. THE DAY WILL BE AWESOME AND PERFECT AND FULL OF TURTLES AND KITTENS.
Me: Seriously, please be reasonable about this. We are going snorkeling. There will be no kittens.
Brain: YES THERE WILL BE. Now, do a happy dance or I’ll give you a headache
Me: (does a half-hearted happy dance) Is this sufficient?
Brain: You don’t look like you mean it.
And so I tried to reconcile excitement and caution, tried to keep my high hopes within the realm of reasonable (juuust kidding about the kittens, would be NICE though). I try do this when I can, it makes sense. If you have no expectations for a day to be perfect, you aren’t nearly so upset when something inevitably goes wrong.
So, when traveling, and in life in general, try not to hope for perfection (preach it sister).Just hope for NOT a disaster. That way, when perfection DOES come along, and a day really IS just incredible, it'll be, like, the single bestest thang evarrr.
P.S - Apo Island really IS incredible and, even though they don't have underwater sea kittens (?) you will LOVE it, you will plant your face in the water for 6 hours and come up purely for survival purposes only; eating, drinking water etc.
Aaand back to reality: no longer in the Philippines, no longer face planting turquoise water. In Italy, off to Rapallo, with NO expectations, I'll have you know, more on that later...
