Let’s Go!

I am 46 years old and for the past 18 years of my life, I have been a hands-on mother. As dramatic as it may sound, my life changed overnight.

I had been preparing to be an empty nester for a while. Isn’t it true that we prepare our children and ourselves for just this all our lives – to let them go and to let them fly?!

I had imagined it to be hard, I had imagined it to be excruciatingly painful and I had imagined myself unable to cope. But like they say when you imagine the worst, the worst doesn’t seem like one anymore!

There are so many parents out there who go through this syndrome year on year and let us be honest to acknowledge that it is the most fearful and scary feeling to harbour. To let your own be on their own. Some leave home earlier and some later – whatever the case, there is no escaping this feeling of void which can never be filled.

Having said that, it is just not right for us as parents to talk about how much we miss them all the time. I feel if we keep harping on it, it somehow does not let them move ahead smoothly. It is not like you want them to just leave everything and never come back but telling them that we miss them and that they should come home often somehow inhibits them. All of this is my personal opinion. There is never a right or wrong in parenting!

So what are we left with? We can think about them all the time (which is natural), we miss their presence and go sniffing their clothes. This is what I do – I often just go on skyscanner and on a whim add some random travel dates to see if flights are available for her to come back home! 

And that is when I realised how much travel means to me. I have always turned to travel whenever I found myself confused. I took my first solo trip out of compulsion when I was just 17. Back then, we could not afford air travel so it was a long train trip of 16 hours from Delhi to Vadodara. Another time, my first air travel was also solo when I flew from Mumbai to Bagdogra. I was 23 then! Whilst these are not such milestones in today’s world, we all have our firsts and when they do come, it is always special.

I turned to travel yet again when I became an empty nester. My husband had recently moved to a new location, and my daughter had left for college. After all the crying and bawling, I made up my mind to fill the emptiness with travel. Only I realised that instead of “filling” the void, the void continued to exist – I just became better at looking at it and making peace with it.

I decided to then start this blog, in the age of insta(ant) videos purely because I wanted to journal my journey and learnings as an empty nest traveller.

This comes purely from my heart and is my personal perspective. I want to share all of this here and share it with all who want to read!

Let’s Go!

PC – Canva, Johanna Gaudeau