Why You Shouldn't Travel (Unless You Love Surprises)

We were about to leave Japan and head back to Mexico after 10 months of travel, and the journey back was long.

We had 12+ hours on only flights and a 2-hour car ride to reach our final destination.

Our first flight from Tokyo to LAX went smoothly. It lasted 10 hours, and I slept through most of it.

Once we got to LAX, things kept going surprisingly smoothly. Somehow, we ended up right next to our gate without even looking for it, and we didn't need to re-check our bags.

After a couple of chill hours at the airport, we boarded our second flight at 6 pm.

Right as we were about to land, the pilot came on the intercom and said the visibility was too low to land safely. I just went back to sleep. But two hours later, we were still circling above our destination.

Eventually, the pilot decided to turn the plane around and head all the way back to LAX.

We had just spent over 6 hours on a flight that was supposed to take 2, just to go all the way back to LAX.

We landed back in LAX at 11 pm, and luckily, my dad and I were first in line to get rebooked on a flight leaving at 7 am.

Since the flight was leaving early, we decided to sleep in the airport.

That night, I managed less than two hours of sleep. But it was one of the most memorable and fun days.

And that's the beauty of travel. It’s unpredictable, sometimes exhausting, and often uncomfortable.

You never know what’s going to happen.

You never know what the next adventure is going to be.

The experience of traveling becomes way easier and more enjoyable when you stop trying to control every situation, let go of expectations, and simply float with the current of life instead of fighting against it. Most of the time, what you’re fighting against is life giving you the perfect circumstances.

For example, when we arrived at LAX, we found ourselves directly at a security checkpoint immediately after picking up our bags. Our connecting flight was with a different airline, so technically, we should have checked our bags back in. But we accidentally ended up at security with no way to go back and check the bags. Little did we know, this worked out perfectly because later that night we ended up sleeping in the airport, and we didn't have to worry about finding and re-checking our bags the next morning.

If that unpredictability isn't for you, it's simple: stay home. But if you love embracing uncertainty, there’s no better way to live.