So, Facebook is gone. And now what?

It is about one week since my Facebook account has been deleted permanently. Funnily enough, I got no emails begging me to stay or to change my decision, which I sort of was expecting. If I was not suddenly logged out of an app I was using (which apparently used Facebook as its login) I would not have noticed anything.

In the last month or so,  there have been a few moments when I got a real strong urge to stop it all and log back in. I have been through a roller coaster ride of crises big and small lately, and then you really miss going online and ‘share your misfortunes’, if only to receive some consolation of the “There, there…” type. Those are the moments to watch out for, and it is important to recognize those for what they are: temptations and tests of your resolve.

So, Facebook is gone and now what? For starters, I have decided to reopen my Instagram account, to share the various photos I make from predominantly landscapes and nature. Feel free to follow that at https://www.instagram.com/ronrumleyvan/

Then, I am currently making an inventory of stuff that I do not have anymore after quitting Facebook, but which I would love to have available again. Biggest thing are the various communities I used to be a member of and which I miss since they mostly communicate through FB.  Some of these are quite important for some of my activities, for instance the various Gaelic study groups or our Warhammer community.

I am therefore toying with the idea of opening a special account just for those  things which are otherwise unavailable to me. The key thing there is not to engage in the activities and issues that made me leave FB in the first place. So, no opinion sites, no politically engaged discussions and,  I am sorry to say, no friends. This will strictly be a kind of ‘business account’ for a selected number of activities, making use of social media without the ‘social’, so to speak.

I am still mulling this over in my mind, but as the list of useful and exciting things I want to do grows, so does the feeling that I need to do this soon. Yet another temptation!

So, I will wait at least a few months before taking such action, if at all. Just wait and see…

My Pre Travel Anxiety and Me. Part 2: How the Universe decided to help me!

So, my travel is now safely behind me. How did it go? Well, a bit different this time and that has everything to do with my resolve to learn how to live with this and accept it as a part of me. Last time, I wrote “I also need to learn how to work with it, instead of against it, and maybe, who knows , I can turn it into an asset instead of an impediment.” I can tell you now that The Universe has been so kind to –almost immediately- on this trip supply me with some material to work with.
This has not been a standard trip, which turns out to be all uneventful after all the fuss I have been making up beforehand. This time I had to battle an impending flu attack, a small yet bloody accident and an issue with my return flight. 

I was beginning to feel the start of a nasty cold while waiting to board my outgoing flight: sore throat, congested nose, the usual. As it is currently the flu season, not something you want to bring with you on a business trip! In the upcoming days that at times made me feel quite miserable, especially when alone in your hotel room with plenty of time to feel sorry for yourself.

Then on the first morning, I wanted to shave myself with a razor that apparently was not mounted correctly, which caused a nasty and quite bloody cut on my face. Panic! I had to sort of dress myself all the while holding a tissue to my face to quench the bleeding and go down to Reception to ask for a band aid. It turned out the bleeding had stopped by itself but I went into our meetings looking like I had had a bit of a fight on my way in.

Then, on my way back as was confronted with a quite long delay of my return flight, due to fog at my destination airport, as I learned later. As I was still feeling quite miserable from that cold/flu/whatever it is, sitting at a busy airport for an at that time unknown extra couple of hours was not really what I was looking forward to. So, after phoning home to tell the bad news, I started to look for a solution, which almost immediately presented itself. Almost right in front of me I saw a sign of a flight by a different airliner to Amsterdam half an hour before my own scheduled time. “It would not hurt to see if there is a place for me on that one”, I thought. 

It turned out, there was, and after buying a ticket for it I arrived home half an hour earlier than by my official itinerary. It was also quite a nice flight, not quite a full plane and with an a la carte menu which offered a delicious slice of pizza (that's another thing! I often cannot eat the food that is served due to allergies. This airliner offers a choice , though you have to pay a bit for it).  I will remember that airliner for my next trips!

The good thing of all this is that, given my resolution to ‘work with my anxiety’, I refuse to turn these ‘crises’ into traumas but, instead, use them as learning tools how to deal with issues. The greatest thing I learned is that I can handle these things when they occur and, though being sick on a trip is unpleasant, it is not the end of the world and there are still ways to make it worthwhile. For  instance, taught me to pack some extra things like cold medicine and band aids and, even better, to find out beforehand where you can buy such things at your destination. 

The most important lesson, however, came when I managed to change my itinerary to a more suitable one. The feeling of exhilaration that I actually used the system to suit my own needs and that I do not have to be a slave of it is something I will cherish and something that restored me into my own power to take charge of what’s happening to me. I personally think that is the most important and best thing that happened to me during this trip.

So, here are some valuable things to carry forward to my next trip! And I honestly hope that I will not have to write any more depressing blogs about this issue. I’ll do my best…