I Forgot What Day It Was, But Ended Up in Europe Anyway
A gate assignment text, twelve-minute panic packing, and one wildly chaotic airport run later… I’m on my way to Paris with a suitcase full of mystery items.
Midlife Nomads explores how people are redesigning work, travel, and life in our 40s, 50s & beyond.
Just a quick check-in this week, for reasons that will soon be apparent.
I had this lovely, civilized few travel days all planned out in my mind. Transatlantic trips take it out of me, so I booked an overnight flight to Poland, long enough to get some actual sleep. A quick little stopover.
Then on to Paris, where I would arrive fresh-faced, well-rested, and feeling wildly smug about my excellent planning.
Except… I thought all of this was happening an entire day later that it actually was.
I was casually puttering around the house late yesterday afternoon when I got a text with our gate assignment. I remember actually laughing and thinking, “Wow, that’s proactive.”
So I checked. And friends… it was not proactive.
It was happening in a couple of hours.
My youngest helped me throw random items into a suitcase in roughly twelve minutes flat before shoving me out the door. I arrived at Toronto Pearson sweaty, frazzled, and deeply unsure what exactly I had packed.
But honestly, if ever there were a country to accidentally arrive underpacked in, France feels like a decent choice.
Once the panic wore off, I crashed hard on the plane… and woke up to the most incredible view of the Norwegian fjords out the window, which felt like a pretty magical reward for surviving my own incompetence.
A gentle reminder from the universe, perhaps: things are going to go wrong.
Flights get mixed up. Plans unravel. You forget what day it is and launch yourself into a month of international travel in a blind panic.
And somehow… you still get there. Maybe not gracefully. Maybe not with the right shoes.
But you get there.
So if things feel a little chaotic on your end lately, consider this your reminder that messy departures can still lead somewhere beautiful.
In the meantime, here’s what you may have missed on the blog:
From Midlife Nomads
That’s it for now! Stop by in our Work From Anywhere group and say hello when you get a chance.
See you next week,
✌️ Miranda