For the 9th edition of Untranslatable Words we're going back to Europe once again, but this time we going to Sweden! As a fan of travelling I couldn't help talking about this word for this week and tell a bit of my story regarding long travelling.
This week's word is the swedish word: resfeber.
Gif by Wordstuck
resfeber
I did feel this several times but none of those times were like that one time I did the longest travel in my life, a 2-weeks-on-the-road trip across 5 countries. The night before I felt so much resfeber that I couldn't sleep at all, but once I jumped into the void I somehow managed to not feel anything, and more than surviving I enjoyed the trip despite all the fears.
resfeber means the tangled feelings of fear and excitement before a journey begins. *
This word is a noun that refers to that kind of mixed sensations, like between vertigo and excitement, I would say kind of a slow adrenaline pre-journey. If you're a wanderlust kind of person, love travelling and discovering new places, you've pretty much experienced this for sure. You're nervous, excited, stressed... it's all mixed!
It can be a good sensation or a bad one, sometimes we think it's kind of regret but I think it depends on how well you think you're prepared for this trip, though this feeling is much more common that one might think, this word is getting popular whithin the millenial travellers and Instagram, where it has more than 35.000 mentions now.
I remember very well the night before my 2 weeks trip that I couldn't sleep because of my mind going so fast with so many thoughts, just thinking of the possibilities, imagining how all the places I'd visit would look. I was feeling pretty weird, so full of fear and uncertainty but excitement and eagerness at the same time.
resfeber 4/5 by Magdalena Rzepecka
Though, I never thought of what could possibly go wrong but I did somehow feel guilty, which is a pretty common sensation too, it's part of the being nervous state, we could say this term is the combination of excitement and stress that comes up before starting a journey. This guilt is due to the fear of the unknown that awaits to be discovered.*
Also, it might feel as "butterflies in the stomach" which I think it's a more accurate description; as when falling in love, we know that travelling isn't a bad thing even though it might give us that very strong sensation. After all we know that both falling in love and travelling are worth-passing experiences.
Even though I experienced this sensation before my journey, once it started I left all fear behind, I entered in a kind of "impertubable" mode because I set my mind like that so I would be able to make it, like a coping mechanism I guess. However, I really enjoyed it and encountered myself in situations that made me feel very anxious, stressed and a bit scared sometimes lol but I'm glad I managed all of them very well and made it to my destination :)
What do you think? Do you usually feel resfeber when you're about to go on a trip? Do you have a coping mechanism to handle this or resfeber doesn't affect you at all once the journey starts? Please tell me what you think!
Thank you very much for passing by! And if you have an Untranslatable Word you'd like to suggest, please don't hesitate to do so! :)
Previous Untranslatable Words:
#1: Torschlusspanik
#2: Mono no aware
#3: Rasāsvāda
#4: Cavoli riscaldati
#5: Nefelibata
#6: Sturmfrei
#7: Jootha
#8: bilita mpash
