Traveling has always been hard for me. There are a lot of things about it that I enjoy but there is a lot that I truly despise. I just went on a two-week long trip to California for a baseball trip. We went to Santa Barbara and then to Los Angeles. From the start of it I was already not in the best of moods. I have always hated flying on planes, I know they say its the safest mode of transportation but it still freaks me out. Every time there is just a little hint of turbulence I grab for dear life and start saying my prayers. It is a full anxiety attack until the plane lands. After we landed in Los Angeles, we had a three hour bus ride to Santa Barbara. This part of traveling is my favorite. I do not mind the long bus rides because my teammates and I use that time to play games to pass the time like Mafia or Imposter. Once we got to our hotel I knew it was time to lock in because this was going to be my house for the next two weeks. It is hard when I am a routine based individual and that starts with making breakfast every morning, and you can’t really make your own breakfast in the morning and I don’t mean to sound ungrateful but I am just not a fan of hotel breakfasts’. I think there are some that are okay, but this hotel had powdered scrambled eggs that were soggy and uncooked bacon. Luckily they had a waffle maker, which I am a fan of… but besides that there weren’t many options. And it’s not like I can just hop in the kitchen and make my own breakfast to my needy standards so I just had to live with what I got and find the appreciation in it.(That was a big challenge for me). The days went by slowly and it was tough getting adjusted to the new time, especially when we had to be up at 8 in the morning which is 6 in the morning in Hawai’i. But the time seemed to move by fast when we were at the field. I will say this about hotels, I always do get the best sleep in them. I don’t have to worry about the air conditioning running too long and I can keep it at the temperature of my choosing. There is no loud traffic or roosters waking me up in the middle of the night. So there are some positives to it for me. And I do think for me, I would rather have an alright breakfast and get good sleep than have the breakfast of my choosing and get alright sleep. My favorite part about traveling for baseball is not having to pay for a single meal. Every meal for two weeks is covered. Which as a college student on a budget is so nice. And it is nice being in California where In n Out and Chipotle are options to go to. By the end of the trip I was both physically and mentally exhausted and I just wanted to be back in my own bed. It is tough living in a hotel for two weeks. There were plenty of times where I was just over-stimulated and needed quiet time but when we are traveling for baseball you have two other guys living in the same room as you so you hardly get any privacy. I am not quite sure what lessons I have learned yet but we are going back to California in two weeks and this time it is for three weeks so hopefully I can prepare better this time and make my time there even better.
