I can cope with whatever challenges i’m confronted with.

Packing for a difficult trip, people pack for a self who will not exist. Three books that will not be read. Medicines for illnesses that will not happen. The case is assembled by somebody anxious in a bedroom, on behalf of somebody who will actually be there and will be different.

You never get to consult that person.

The one who turns up on the day has adrenaline, information and no time for rehearsal — a set of resources completely unavailable to the version doing the worrying now.

Which is why coping is so consistently underestimated beforehand and so rarely remarked upon afterwards.