This weekend I’ve spent literally hours preparing for an upcoming trip to Cayman. Yes, the amount of paperwork and tests now needed to travel in the age of Covid has added to this, but it occurred to me this morning that I’ve forgotten how to travel.
A few short years ago I travelled a huge amount, peaking at 90 days flying in a year. With that came many of the frequent traveller cliches such as frequent flyer perks, having two (or three) of everything so that I always had a travel case ready to do. I even sometimes flew thousands of miles back home, then turned around the very next morning for another trip. The peak moment for me was being welcome on board the long haul flight from Miami to London with “welcome back Mr McCallum” from a flight attendant I recognised from my previous trip on that route less than ten days prior.
Over that time travelling had become automatic to me. I knew what to pack, including what gadgets, adapters, phone sim cards, bank cards for different countries etc. I knew what to top up before leaving, what funds to transfer to what accounts. I even started to time myself between walking off the flight from Cayman to Miami to see how fast I could walk off the aircraft, through immigration and security and into the lounge (eight minutes was my record, btw!).
So, this weekend felt strange. What do I need to pack? I haven’t even been on a flight for eighteen months, let alone had the experience of flying during Covid. The peak moment this time (so far, I don’t fly for another week or so) was checking my passport pouch and realising that a Cayman bank card had expired. Of course I can order another one to be there when I arrive, but what really struck me was that I’d started using ApplePay during Covid to minimise contact in stores, and now I rarely remember to even take a wallet with me when I go out, I simply use my phone. Cayman doesn’t have such services (likely the market is just too small), so I will have to remember to carry a wallet with a debit card in it.
No massive story here, other than to remind ourselves that sometimes we get so practised at something that we forget how we do it. We become unconsciously competent, we forget what we have learned. If you aren’t sure you believe me, try sitting down and writing out, for someone who has never seen a pair of laced shoes before, exactly how you tie your laces.
The same applies to teaching someone how to drive, so, for an in-depth explanation of the “competence model”. take a read of an earlier post: “Zen and teaching your son to drive“.