“Drawing”, The term that we use to describe a plan that doesn’t happen or a person who organizes a trip or activity without any plan of joining or making it happen.

Last month, i felt like I was really in dire need of vacation because of too much stress both my personal and professional life were giving me, so I thought of asking a friend to go on a weekend vacation with me. We planned to go back to Talisayen Island but we’re not rushing because we both know that we had a month to prepare. What we finalized ahead was the total number of confirmed people who will be joining us. I got more excited when I learned that 4 of his friends are joining. We kept talking about other plans but none of us were moving. We didn’t call the contact for boat reservation, and we never talked about the foods that we will be preparing. We’re just excited, that’s it!

Our supposed travel date was March 17th. It was already 15th but we haven’t finalized the plan yet. None of us were reaching to one another until taddddaaaaaaannn! It’s Saturday, March 17th! I was supposed to be driving to Zambales that time while listening to Spotify and singing with my travel buddies, but I found myself lying in my bed, doing nothing but imagine. Just the usual thing that’s happening every time we plan our trip, our travel plan ended up as “drawing” (lol).

What happened awakened my curiosity about people who often make plans but end up not pursuing it, so I tried to identify the possible reasons and maybe I’ll think afterwards how I can improve this habit because I am also guilty of giving false reason for cancelling a trip.

1. We do not really want to travel. We just do not want our friend to feel disregarded. You’re friend saw a good place to go to, through social media. S/He immediately tagged your account and commented, “bes tara!”. Because we know how excited s/he is, or maybe because it was a public post, we try to respond affirmatively by saying, “go! Kelan ba yan?” then plans the trip with her/him, but in reality, we’re not in the mood to travel.

2. We want to travel but we are out of budget. We cannot deny it, even if we say it is a budget friendly travel, we still need extra money so we have to adjust our expenses. We are very much excited to travel, but when we learned about the needed budget, “bes, cancel ako, out of budget eh'”.

3. We love the idea of  traveling but we are not interested in cooperating for the plan. Oh yes, every once in a while, we will be meeting people who would like to travel but does not want to help in the preparation. People like this often say, “let me know how much ang share ha? Bayaran ko agad”. Uy bes, DIY travel kasi tayo diba?

4. Our schedule sucks! Everything is ready. Bags are packed, budget is safe, but our boss gave us task that we need to urgently deliver. “Bes sorry pero work muna, biglaang nagkaroon ng deadline eh”.

5. Busy si Bae. Admit it, there are times when you are okay to travel with your friends but you suddenly backs out because your SO cannot join you and you chose to be with him/her instead of being with your friends. Ouch, bes!

6. Emergency. Well, we have to admit that sometimes, an unexpected situation really makes us cancel our trip. However, some people are also using this as an alibi for them not to go with us. Emergency bes? Weh?

7. No other reason, paasa lang talaga. Maybe this is the most common reason why we cannot pursue our travel plans. There are really people who keeps on agreeing with every idea we have but suddenly cancels their confirmation without giving any reason. Well, what can we do? Ayaw nga diba?

I understand the fact that most of us do not really want to cancel our travel plans. Maybe we just need to learn more how to manage our time and our priorities. Before we confirm, let us check if our schedule would permit us to go on vacation, or set a deadline on when we should take time to treat ourselves. Make sure as well to save so we will not run out of budget. Take note, it’s ok to travel, but never give up your work unless you have other source of income, or you find a way to earn while traveling. On the other hand, never ever let your work be the only reason to live. As the saying goes, you work to live, not live to work. Work-life balance is the key.

So,  Bes, tara na! Kulayan na natin ang drawing natin.😉