Connections Over Coffee

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I’m sure all of us have experienced post-vacation blues to some extent, but for me, I now see there is a consistent pattern for which trips I experience this phenomenon.

This pattern recognition came about after experiencing some not so memorable trips…

• My solo trips to Sweden and Vancouver felt blasé. They were safe and something I can pat myself on the back for doing “on my own”, but I was relieved to get back home (at the time) to Orange County after BOTH of those trips…

• My solo day trips around Italy last year—to Genoa, Venice, Florence, Bologna, and Verona were days I remember dragging myself around with ennui. I was walking everywhere, taking pictures where I was supposed to, but I felt miserable, cranky, and angry, mostly because I was indeed homesick.

• I left for my Geneva work trip excited, but with certain circumstances that popped up, I came back to Milan exhausted/happy it was over—I could go further to say that by May’s end, I had never been more excited about going back to Houston.

So, which trips made me feel sad when I returned home because I enjoyed them so much?

• Every single trip I’ve made to India (I always came back severely exhausted and jetlagged since childhood, but it was always worth it).

• When I saw my sister and best friend in Austin last summer after a (tough) year away in Italy. We spent a few days altogether, and I remember after driving back to my parents’ house, I couldn’t help but cry from the happiness I experienced/the emotional crash once I realized it was over.

• The blessing of making multiple trips home this year to Houston for my Dad and Austin for my sis. Ha, even Las Vegas, the home of my best friend, made its way in here!

The common denominator was not the places I visited or the attractions I saw.

It was the people. It was family—both by blood and chosen.

And my recent trip to the UK was no exception. It was a last-minute trip planned for only a weekend (a mere “drop in the water” compared to the “cannonball” vacations Italians are taking at the moment…), but because the experience was so rich, it felt like a month-long vacation!

————————————————– 𝕊𝔾𝔻 ————————————————-

On my former blog (Will Study for Food), I actually recapped the time five years ago when we reconnected with my cousin and her family in Wales. At the time, it was a reunion after 17 years! Compared to that decade-and-then-some, reuniting after five years this time around seemed like nothing. Even with COVID sandwiched in for two years, it felt like no time had passed since our last meeting.

Except when it comes to children, five years is an incredibly large chunk of time! My cousin’s daughters P and M were 14 and 8, respectively, when I met them all five years ago. Now, they pretty much transitioned into the next phase of life, while I went from 25 to 30 not feeling like much has changed for me.

While I had a phenomenal time with my cousin and family at Newton Beach, thrifting in Bristol, and traversing through Birmingham, I thought I’d shift away from the standard “travel recap” and use this post to comment on something else.

My last morning in Cardiff, my cousin generously made us both coffee (like she did on all the days I visited, haha) but this time, she suggested we sip on our drinks out on the patio. With the babies trying to join in, it led to a really great conversation that I didn’t want to end.

But, I unfortunately had a flight to catch, and it included a stop at dreaded ORLY in Paris…

The fact is, I love these types of conversations. Even if they’re brief, they have the potential to dive deep. I’m the kind of person who will chat your ear off, but only if you have an interest to hear what I have to say. So, it often leads to people assuming I’m “quiet” when in fact, I just don’t want to bore you.

I’ve had similar “coffee and conversation” moments with other cousins and family members in the past, but sometimes I still held back. In those moments, I hesitated to bring up sensitive topics like my Mom and my eating disorder, because I wasn’t sure if I was emotionally ready enough to handle any type of reaction that could result.

As I’ve gotten older, I welcome these conversations. With each one that I have, it’s a bit easier to reveal the most of myself without feeling doubt or shame. Ha, I’m sure anyone who is curious about my life and is connected with me via WhatsApp has had a chance to peruse this blog (my profile pic has become an advert for it 😂, since I don’t do social media anymore). Even if it was just to be nosy, I hope the posts I’ve written—especially the vulnerable ones—got their point across…

Looking back at the short trip I made, I enjoyed the conversation of that serene Sunday morning the most out of all the things I did. It reminded me that it doesn’t matter where I am in the world, but as long as I am with people I love and enjoy being around (even better with a cup of coffee in hand), that is what a real vacation is.

Are you a “people person” often mistaken as a pure introvert? Leave a comment with your thoughts!