About two months ago, I desperately needed a vacation. I had reached a point of stress that I didn’t know was possible. The root cause of my stress was work (which shouldn’t come as a surprise, since I think this is the leading cause of stress in most people’s lives). The reason that my stress had hit such a high level was because the company I work for was undergoing some major changes, and I was one of the people who was responsible for making sure those changes were successfully implemented. This meant lots of long hours and endless discussions with people who weren’t necessarily responsive to what was being done.
At about ten o’clock one night, I was still at the office, and I decided to pull up a couple of travel deal websites. As I was wishfully browsing, I came across a four day trip to Ontario that included a rental car, hotel room and flight for a dirt cheap rate. Right then and there, I decided to book the deal, and the next day (after I called in sick to work, which I only had to do for two days of my trip since the other two days were on Saturday and Sunday) I was on a plane to Ontario. I had a great trip, and my stress level was much lower when I returned to work on Monday.
