In The Great Gatsby, Jordan says that "Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall," and this couldn't be more true for me. I've always loved September for the crisp air and return of sweater weather. Everything is fresh and new. Fall always feels like the beginning of the year for me. Time to revisit my game plan for the upcoming months, see what I've done, and see what I can do. For the past several years I've taken a vacation during September to escape from the daily grind and refocus on my values and goals. This year's trip was a bit on the unexpected side.
My lovely travel agent Lucy emailed me two weeks ago to let me know I had a travel voucher that was set to expire in October. I had complettly forgotten about the credit that was from a previous flight to Switzerland I didn't take because I kicked that guy to the curb. With my credit experidation date looming, I took to the internet to find a location both worthy of such a voucher and one that Delta services. At that point I was planning on traveling alone, still wishing my friends had either more free time or more money so they could join me. After several minutes of research I found that Ireland was third on the top ten list of places to visit alone. Great! They speak English, I've never been there, and the photos look awesome. Ireland will be my new adventure and Paris, my old faithful, will wrap up the trip.
Now, last but not least, to call Delta and convince them to let me split my travel voucher for this trip and extend, let alone keep, the remaining balance. This may seem simple but with the rules of fare, achieving this was anything but simple. After a long chat with a lovely woman named Karen she finally talked to enough managers to make it happen. I was so proud of myself. I only had to get a little mad and fight for what I thought was fair. Being willing to ask for what I wanted, all of it, and getting it was a great feeling. Starting the trip with this good fortune anything is possible!
