Departure day finally arrived! I woke up this morning with a weird anxiety-excitement buzz, vibrating with energy in spite of the very short four hours of sleep I managed to get. I was anxious about leaving my family, but the anticipation has been building for this new adventure to start. I had a wonderful send off from my entire family, with lots of hugs and love and only a few tears on my part (don’t we look cute? The security guard was very confused on how to work an iPhone, but we finally got a good picture!). I am not a particular fan of flying, so I’ve been spending my days researching how to become a better traveler and at least relax, if not enjoy, flights. With one flight down (a short trip from Dallas to Austin), and my British Airways nine-hour flight to London looming in the next three hours, I’ve discovered some of the research I did was useless, some of it was on point, and that a large part of becoming a happy traveler is knowing yourself and learning what you need. So, what I have learned so far: