I was in a graduate program and took a class i Lithuania, in the summer of 2007. I was partly on my own and partly with the class. I am afraid the class and the whole graduate program was a waste of time and money and I guess the class counts as travel. My next trip was a 3 night trip to Montreal, Canada, when I was 32. I called my aunt and then called my parents, from my apartment, to tell them about my trip, the evening before leaving. As expected, my mother was scared to death, and I felt really guilty for perhaps doing something terribly wrong. My dad didn’t mind. my aunt didn’t mind but requested details, including about where I was staying. The next year, I took an 8 night trip to England. My mother was mortified but calmed down before I left. This time, I told her about my trip about 4 months in advance. The next year, I spent 14 nights in Italy. My mother was horrified when I called her to tell her that I had bought my airplane tickets. This year I went to Greece, in October. I made the mistake of discussing the possibility of visiting the country with both my aunt and my mother, at my parents house. As expected, my mother was more scared than my aunt or my dad; my aunt and my mother both insisted that traveling alone is dangerous; they tried convincing me to find a whole-trip guided tour. As if as a way to say goodbye to me as they were driving me to the airport, they had a meltdown about their fear of dropping me off at the wrong entrance - typical behavior for them.
I can’t seem to stop wanting to travel. I am thinking of going to the Netherlands sometime between July-September or October, but this time, not telling my mother. I haven’t figured out my itinerary or whether I will go to Belgium too. I can request up to 10 weekdays off of work starting with the last week of June. I believe my mother can be easily fooled or decieved into not suspecting that I am traveling. I just need to keep my phone off most of the time, but call my parents a few times during my trip, and supply an excuse for why I am skipping seeing them if they ask about seeing me, which I think would be easy enough to do. In addition I would simply need to arrange rides to and from the airport, probably with the kind of taxi company that is used to driving to the airport and will agree on a price in advance. When my plane landed in Michigan on my way home from Athens, I paid $78 ($68 base price + tip) for a taxi ride to my apartment.
I realize that my question is a childish worry that seems like something only a kid around the age of 16-23 would ask about.
(I spent my youth being afraid to interact with people due to severe anxiety, which was obviusly induced by my parents behavior. Before you accuse me of being anxious, for subconscious, unknown reasons, contrary to what I think should be expected, my typical loneliness / fear of interacting with people seems to dissappear or lessen a lot when traveling to other countries; maybe part of my brain likes the possibility of a language barrier... all people have hypocracies and contradictions).
My trip is not planned yet. Right now it is just speculation.
What do you think of not telling my parents or my aunt about my trip?