One of the best happy accidents I’ve ever made in my life – on a trip or otherwise – was planning to go to Disneyland on Halloween.

While in Los Angeles, my friend and I booked an early day tour of Warner Bros. Studio, and then I decided to make a journey over to Universal Studios for my own adventure.

My friend and I both expressed a desire to travel to Los Angeles at some point in the near future, and by early 2019, we were booking hotels.

When we got to New York, the experience I was most excited for was to eat our way through the city. All I really wanted to eat on our New York trip was a delicious slice of pizza.

The first trip of 2019 was one I’d been dreaming about since I was a teenager – New York City!

But it was an idea in someone’s head, and some planning later I was in a place with palm trees and a Disney castle. Wild.

I led a sheltered life until this point, so jumping on a plane in one place and hopping off it in another felt like magic. Like maybe this was another world. And I had a ticket to see it.