G Is for Google Flights

Opening a new tab in Chrome, I type “G+Enter” and am already planning my next trip. Chrome knows to auto-populate the rest of the URL for Google Flights; this isn’t our first dance. The diligent waltz of weighing layover options, dates, and times falls in lockstep with the salsa of searching for the best deals. Much like Google auto-populating the URL, these moves are committed to muscle memory.

Google Flights and I go way back. Fresh out of college, I was fortunate to live at home, grateful to spend my money on flights instead of rent. Google Flights quickly became my go-to for getting a trip off the ground, so to speak. A trusted partner and blind supporter of my travels, Google Flights facilitated my trips across the US and abroad to visit friends, go on work trips, and explore where I might want to live in the future. 

It was around then that Google Flights became my most-frequented website. I was looking for somewhere else to call home, something beyond my hometown where everything was so familiar. Struggling to find where that somewhere was, I hoped that I would fall in love with any of the places I visited. I was also grateful that Google Flights didn’t probe about how maybe these trips were a form of escapism camouflaged as exciting visits to friends. Subconsciously I knew this was the case, but at the time it was fun and I was enjoying the ride. It wouldn’t last forever and I wanted to make the most of it. However, in this pursuit of somewhere else, I failed to realize how much I was denying myself the opportunity to move somewhere I already had felt belonging and community. 

I didn’t think moving to the Netherlands was a real possibility for me until I “test drove” living here this past summer. I spent six weeks in Utrecht and loved it so much. Over the course of those six weeks, August 2025 became the first month that I hadn’t been on a flight in over three years. I was happy where I was and didn’t feel the need to find somewhere else; I had found it. I wasn’t being pulled in other directions and that familiar pull of escapism had no grasp on me. 

Five months later, I made the move official. I now call Utrecht home. I find newness around every corner and haven’t asked Google Flights to dance in quite some time. While we aren’t as close as we once were, like an old friend we can always pick up right where we left off. No hard feelings. 

Sending my best xx