Today is the day! Our daughter landed in Paris a little over a week ago, successfully boarded a train and arrived in Lille, and has texted us nearly every day about the fun times she’s having in her study abroad program. Nine hours from now, my husband, son, and I will lift off to join her.

New places used to intimidate me. Especially cities. Cities bustle with scads of people who all know where they’re going and how to get there. I live in a small town, among trees and birds and quiet roads, where I’m rarely in anyone’s way, and I almost never worry about doing something gauche or gaping like bumpkin.

My job has given me the gift of travel. And not just travel, but travel with companions from around the world, who have visited every continent, who give me courage as I watch how they navigate new places, what tools they use, how they prepare, how they interact with city’s residents with respect and deference, and how we work together as a group and with the city and its people to know where we want to go and how to get there.

I’m so grateful for this. It has changed my life. For me, travel is up there with literature for understanding and appreciating humans in all our grace and fallibility. Around the world, we all struggle with the same things. We have always all struggled with the same things. Love, power, survival, wonder. We create, we destroy. We try to figure out what this thing called life is. Many of us struggle. Many of us try to get along with each other. Many of us create and appreciate beauty. Many of us smile and laugh and lift each other up.

Ten years ago, I would have been terrified to spend time by myself in a foreign city, or even a large city in the US. I’m amazed our daughter just flew to Paris by herself, and took a train from the airport to Lille, and didn’t seem to bat an eye about it. I love this for her. It bodes well for more travel in her future.

I wouldn’t call myself adventurous now. Big new places still intimidate me. But I’m braver. I will stay on my own for a few days after my husband and son leave. I booked an airbnb in Lille so I can hang out with our daughter if she’s around, and go off on my own if she’s not. I’ve got three sets of bookmarks on my map — Paris, Lille, and Brussels — marked up with recommendations from books I’ve read and from all of you (thank you!). I’ve got my notebooks and camera and e-reader packed. I’m dreaming about croissants and crepes, art and gardens. Architecture. Wine, cheese. Waffles and chocolate. Belgian beer in fancy glassware. I’m ready!