Beginning a Road Trip

The decision about where to begin is not one but many decisions wrapped into one.For example, if I’m choosing to begin a road trip from Los Angeles, I have, in that decision, decided that I will not begin my trip going West. I will not begin my trip wearing ski clothes, and I will (probably) not be eating authentic jambalaya for lunch. It also means that if I want to get to New York, I will have to drive a whopping 2,700 miles, as opposed to 500 if I left from Cleveland.From where you begin matters. But here’s the catch about the beginning (of road trips): the beginning is often not a choice at all. You begin where you are. You begin by getting into your car in the front driveway, or parking garage, or alley.If you’re like me, the first step is the hardest. First steps have so many decisions wrapped into them. The one decision that can’t be made because it’s already made for you, is the decision from where to start.You can only begin from where you are.Right there. Where you are. And where you are has all kinds of limitations and decisions already wrapped into it, but it’s your location and it’s what you have. Maybe all you have.Take the step. Get in the car.The only thing we know for certain about the beginning is that if you don’t begin, you’ll never go.