She ignored the astrologer’s advice not to travel around her 40th birthday

According to family lore, a psychic told my mother when she was 20 that she would suffer a terrible loss at age 40, and two months after her 40th birthday, her youngest brother, my Uncle Howard, died of AIDS.

More than a prediction, it felt like a curse. I spiraled. I’m not meant to travel because, God forbid, my plane might crash? Is nuclear war imminent? Or worse, could something happen to my parents?

But as my day approached, I, a longtime travel writer and semi-nomad, was only too eager to re-explore a place that had such a powerful impact on me.

I ignored the astrologer’s advice and went with my gut

So I decided not to take the advice and booked a last minute trip to Uzbekistan.

I first moved to New York in 2007 after earning a degree in Middle East and Central Asian Security Studies from the University of St. Andrews of Scotland. There was a summer language program I attended in Samarkand, a legendary Silk Road city that always left me wanting to return to Uzbekistan.

Back in New York, I’ve been looking for opportunities to keep the country in my life, from adding it to The New York Times’ list of 52 places to visit in 2019 to recently taking over as English editor at The Bukharian Times , a Bukharian- Jewish newspaper published in Queens.

That new job opportunity landed on my plate a few months before my 40th birthday and I took it as a sign.

I am planning my trip to Uzbekistan

I booked a $1,100 ticket to Samarkand on Turkish Airlines with a free stopover in Istanbul. I then convinced my boyfriend to do the same and join me on the trip. Despite having only been dating for six months and in an ageless relationship, we are 14 years apart; I’m older – he was completely bent on adventure.

Although my birthday trip was my fourth visit to Uzbekistan, it was the first I had planned and organized. A lot has changed since my first trip to Uzbekistan in 2007, when I flew on a handwritten airline ticket that my father bought for me with a money order at a travel agency in Brooklyn, because Uzbekistan Airways does not accept credit cards.

Now, thanks to a series of economic reforms, you can book flights and apply for visas online.

It was also my first international adventure with my boyfriend. I made sure we hit all the top sights, like Samarkand’s Registan Square (I slipped the guard about $20 to climb to the top of the crooked minaret), Bukhara’s historic walled center, and Tashkent’s bustling Chorsu Bazaar .

When my birthday came

For my birthday, we enjoyed brunch on the hotel balcony. Filled with balloons, the balcony overlooked the old Soviet rowing canals, which became the backdrop to Samarkand’s newest attraction: the Eternal City.

After brunch we flew from Samarkand to Tashkent. I found business class tickets for $50 a seat, so that was an easy, last-minute splurge. We stayed at the InterContinental and blew out several birthday candles at the rooftop restaurant that evening.

Although I experienced some paranoia that day, wondering if flying on my birthday was too risky, everything went well.

As much as the trip to Uzbekistan was a birthday present to me (it ended up costing us about $2,500 each), I realized that the real gift was shaking off the family curse—and learning to trust me.