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Winging It: (Most) Everything I Know About Travel I learned from my Dad
People who first meet me are often surprised that I’ve been to nearly 105 countries and have traveled over 6 million miles so far in my life. My wanderlust is so deeply ingrained that I start to get nervous if I’m in one place for too long. And many of my charming (my mom says so!) quirks come out too.
The way some people like to sing in the shower, I like to pretend I’m an airline purser and make departure announcements in multiple languages. And when I’m bored of being Lufthansa’s greatest gay flight attendant, I become El Capitan and pretend to do Air Traffic Control communications for a flight (usually approaching LHR). Lest you think this is only going on in my head, I’m here to tell you that I say it — to myself, out loud — and when that fails I’ll listen to live ATC just to wet my travel whistle.
Sometimes (so that I don’t seem crazy) I’ll use my inside voice and visualize some of the most picturesque and stunning take-offs or landings I’ve experienced, set to music from the 90s, 2000s and today.
For example, Seal’s “The Beginning” is forever associated with a landing at Copenhagen and Coldplay’s “Magic” is a departure from Buenos Aires. Both of these are also deeply connected to failed relationship attempts, so I suppose that could be contributing to their…
