10 Things I Feared About Travel To The USA

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Before visiting the USA, I had some fears and trepidations about the trip. Fears are a normal part of life, and will magnify with the greater risks and adventures you take.

Fear of traveling is called hodophobia, or some will call it trip-o-phobia, and is usually more associated with modes of transport such as a fear of flying, but it can also be used to describe a fear of visiting a new place.

No country has instilled hodophobia in me more than the USA, and while none of those fears were really large, nor were they going to get in the way of my travels, I still felt anguish even though I had been to 50+ countries by then.

I wanted to share my fears about traveling in the USA with you, to show you that you’re not alone.

I believe in the power of diminishing your fears by acknowledging they are there. When you put on a false sense of courage by pretending they don’t exist, they pop their head up in ugly ways. Usually in subconscious self-sabotaging ways and by pointing the finger at how fearful and stupid others are.

Once you’ve shone the light on your fears, you know how to create a plan to overcome them and make your dream happen.

Here’s what I found scary about visiting America…

Fears I Felt Before Traveling in America

1. Fear of planning

This may seem like a strange one, but it’s interesting to see how something like having too much choice or not knowing where to begin the planning can be somewhat of a fear and lead you to procrastination.

Planning a road trip around Australia is pretty easy. You travel around the outside and dip into the middle once or twice. You head up the top during the winter and down the bottom during the summer. DONE.

America not so much. You’re going in, out, up, down, and across. The entire top of the USA is out of the question during the winter (when you’re road tripping) unless you want to deal with snow and unpassable roads.

Not knowing where to start has been quite debilitating to us. There are too many scenarios, too many pathways, too many seasons, festivals to juggle. Sometimes when you don’t know what to choose, you choose nothing.

Fearing that I couldn’t work it out and wouldn’t be able to see and do everything I wanted, I decided to do nothing and avoid the challenge. The disappointment and the fear of getting it wrong made planning too overwhelming!

To…