For those of you that don’t know the phrase “embrace the suck”, it is essentially military-speak for “suck it up and get it done” or “deal with it” (I’ve had several military boyfriends so I obviously have the lowdown). But this is a phrase I use frequently. To remind me that you have to take the bad with the good.

This post is a little bit of everything related to this mantra. I don’t want to sound all Positive Patsy or be the next motivational speaker but the phrase is really legit. Sometimes you just have to say “ok this sucks” and move on. I’ve dealt with so many situations like this. But to keep to all things travel related here are just a few moments I’ve had to “embrace the suck” (in no particular order)

• Being sick in Europe, multiple times
• Having my passport, blackberry (on loan from my father), money, camera, and other items stolen in Rome, having to wake up stupid early and get a really great (NOT) passport photo and deal with US embassies.
• Getting felt up by more German security agents than I can possibly count
• Being terrible at reading maps and getting lost
• Going to Jamaica, being coaxed into getting close to a man with a giant conk shell only for him to move it to show me his quite impressive dick (this wouldn’t have been so traumatic if I hadn’t just (like literally 3 days before) a nasty breakup with “the love of my life”…
• Falling down Mt. St. Michael
• Missing connecting flights
• Sitting/attempting to sleep in airports when flights are delayed
• Waking up at 4 am to get to the Nice airport to catch my flight to Amsterdam being hungover/still drunk and sleep-deprived and then having the person next to me on the plane drop their luggage on my head
• Rude locals

These are just a few of the things I can remember. They are DEFINITELY not all of the things that have happened but one thing I have learned is that to dwell on shit like any of this is stupid. Take a few minutes, be pissed or freaked out or sad or w/e but then move on. By allowing yourself to be consumed by the suck, you’ve in essence just ruined your trip. Nothing will ever go 100% according to plan and there are so many variables in life that we can’t even begin to predict. You just have to take it and deal with it.

Embrace the bad with the good. It’s all part of this perfectly imperfect journey we’re all on.

And remember without bad things, we would never fully appreciate the good!