Up, Up and Away
This article was written by Lonestar Writer Natalie Lehman
If you are an avid reader of this Medium account, which I doubt many of you are, then you would have read an article I wrote after New Year’s Eve 2020. In this article I reviewed the past century’s 20s and how, wait for it, our 20s would be absolutely nothing like it. Here’s when it gets even better, I stated that the 2020’s couldn’t possibly compare because there wasn’t an infectious disease on the loose or an event so catastrophic to so many peoples lives like a war or global pandemic that could bring people together. Well 1920s, we almost had World War 3, we’re still amidst a global pandemic and who knows, maybe a prohibition is right around the corner.
A part of the hundred year old 20s that really defined the entire decade was the flapper. This free and feminist spirt drove not only the women, but the music and social culture as well. With vaccines being rolled out across the world and some countries already walking in Covid-free communities like New Zealand, that travel itch that made last summer the “Summer of The Road Trip” has grown into the need to see the world from above. Some people haven’t been on a plane their entire lives, if there’s a time to get out and fly, it’s now, or at least in a few months.
I was fortunate enough to be able to travel this past summer even with Covid. My mother is from the Czech Republic (middle-of-nowhere Europe but really pretty) and so my siblings and I have dual citizenship, allowing us to cross the borders. The same goes for this summer, have an EU citizenship? Off you go. Dad from Brazil? Wish I could see you there. Now for the rest of the population, more like the majority of eligible travelers, it’s going to be a little more difficult.
My two best friends and I have been planning a trip to Greece and my hometown in the Czechers for the past month now, and we’re all learning about how annoying it is to be 18 and to plan your own trip — let alone to be doing it during the pandemic. My own father said that one of the best parts of going on a trip is planning it. False. The best part of going on a trip is being on the trip and then thinking back on all the fun you had on the trip. Planning all of the hotels, AirBNBs, flights, trains, cars, bus routes, cheap activities, dining options and everything else to sustain us while gone, and also trying to make sure everything is refundable, is just madness.
At the moment most countries in Europe are open for tourists as long as they provide a negative Covid test 48 hours before they travel. Italy recently released that they will be opening up again for tourists on June 3rd. The country is still under strict lockdown restrictions and is not even allowing people in for family visits. So, the key for anyone wanting to travel this summer is to make sure everything is refundable and that you can actually get into the country.
Even though it’s not as glamorous, renting a beach house for a weekend or just going to a small town full of Texan charm can be just as fun with the right people. Traveling is all about what you make it to be. Don’t get your expectations too high and most of the time, the things we don’t anticipate are the best things to come out of a trip. One of my favorite quotes is by a woman named Sara Banks who started a luggage company called Steamline, “You take what you need, and you don’t need that much, but you want what you have to be lovely.” Her luggage is, of course, ridiculously expensive and small, but she has the right idea. We all want to get out of our small worlds that have been compressed by Covid and to see more than just the view from our bedroom window.
As high school students we have so much to look forward to, and ever since the pandemic hit we’ve seen and felt how hard it is to have it all taken away from us by something we have absolutely no control over. Over the past year and some months we have all come to realize just how much we used to have and what is actually important enough to keep and look forward to once the world returns to normal. Traveling is a vital part of embracing new adventures and right about now, we all need a new adventure.
