Erin McElvaney

In high school I had an English teacher who impressed upon us the significance of what he called "the ultimate wow."  The Ultimate Wow is the experience that occurs at the apex where anticipation and the act anticipated meet.  His most illustrative example was that fleeting moment just before a first kiss.  You've waited all night, all week, or all your life for this first kiss and here you are, inches from one-another's face, leaning in slowly, lips pursed, eyes closed, and *freeze*.   This is the Ultimate Wow.  No matter how amazing that kiss is, nothing can compare to the excitement boiling inside you just an instant before it happened.  Wow.

Try to convince me that life isn't about the journey.  The process of achieving is so much more emotive than the aftermath.  So then what is wrong with the 'pursuit of money'?  Well, we've forgotten that the object or achievement we are seeking is not the key to the WOW.  Seek the completion of a coffee pot collection, learning a new piece on the piano, acing any single interview.  Whatever it may be, if it means something to you, there is much to anticipate.  We should seek to maximize our WOWs!  Why set only one lofty life goal when we can set hundreds of diverse plans in place?

If the Ultimate Wow is about maximizing anticipation, perhaps we should plan more?

What do you anticipate?

For one, I anticipate travel. Travelling is a wonderful escape, with beautiful surroundings, cultural experiences, new people and new bonds.  So many people resort to cruises or all-inclusives for vacations, which are great and all have their place, but some trips can hold so much more opportunity for WOWs.

Take a trip to Europe on a tight budget with a couple close friends.  Let's start with planning--many months ahead of time, we can choose countries and cities to visit.  But how do we choose which ones to see?  Ask friends and family for suggestions, scour the internet and message boards, go to the book store and look at travel guides.  Find a good route.  What an adventure.  The locations themselves then each have their own vast possibilities.  Now find cheap airfare and a time of year to go that fits everyone's schedule.  Read reviews on travel gear and buy what suits your needs best.  Find appropriate minimal clothes for the weather and activities you'll be doing.  Test pack everything you need for weeks into one bag.  Grab the best city guides.  Determine how to travel between intermediate destinations.  Create a budget.   Research the best hostels.  Find the best places to eat and visit in each town.  Start a travel blog.  Now GO.

You're on your way to the airport.  The anticipation you've built up consists of hundreds of little WOWs and you're caught with an excitement of butterflies swirling about your viscera that won't leave you throughout the whole trip.

You arrive--the adventure has begun, but the WOWs are NOT over!  Just finding your way to your hotel from the airport is an experience to relish in.  You've just lived through something more culturally eye-opening than many people will ever experience.  Meet your hostel roommates.  Find out where they are from.  Use botched gestures to sign to others what it is you are trying to communicate.  Find a grocery store; notice it's not like a supermarket.  Cook a meal.  Drink cheaper wine than you've ever imagined--in public--without getting arrested.  Learn some new phrases in another language.  Get lost; ask directions.  Try new foods.  Drink soda without ice.  Pay more for water than for wine.  Find the most beautiful view in the city and discover how many others are sitting there and enjoying it too.  Bond with other travelers.  Hike the most scenic trails you've ever seen.  See how others in the world live from day to day.  Eat an expensive lunch and a cheap dinner.  Learn subways, trains, buses, maps, and planes like never before.  Share knowledge with other travellers.  Go somewhere you didn't plan to go.

Expose yourself to a million more experiences than you do in on a normal day at home.  Feel how your heart grows, your mind expands, your body tones, and your language evolves.  And you will never forget these things.  Enjoy an entire two-week Ultimate Wow--built up by six months (maybe more) of Anticipation, and realize there's still so much to anticipate all along the journey. 

When you've had this kind of WOW, you will be changed.  You'll not regret the moment you decided to take on this trip; and the best part is, once you return--after you've sorted through photos and souvenirs--you can begin planning your next trip using all the information you learned from the last! 

Anticipate many things in your life.  Seek out another first kiss, create a piece of art, but most definitely anticipate travel.

It is truly The Ultimate WOW.