Travel
Traveling Solo Was One of My Best Decisions
I learned more about myself in 4 days than I have in 22 years.
Traveling solo is not something I had ever seriously considered. I had always hoped there would be people in my life who would want to travel with me.
I realize now that I was thinking about it all wrong. You don’t travel alone because you can’t find anyone to go with you.
You travel alone because you are comfortable being alone. Or, as was the case for me, because you want to become comfortable being alone.
My first solo trip happened because my girlfriend and I wanted to go away, but had different ideas of what that trip would be.
She wanted to relax on a beach. I wanted to explore a big city.
In the end, we decided to take separate trips.
Not because we couldn’t compromise but because we had never traveled alone and thought it would be a good experience.
She went to Miami. I went to Denver.
It was an amazing experience.
For the first time in my life, I was completely in charge of my time.
Here I was, in this brand new city, with the freedom to do exactly and only the things that I wanted to do.
In the past, traveling had always consisted of compromises. Where to eat, what to do, when to sleep and wake up. All these things had been up to the whole group to decide.
But this time, it was just me. Doing exactly what I knew I would enjoy.
I dined alone at a restaurant for the first time in my life.
I faced my inconvenient dislike of Ubers.
I walked up and down unknown streets completely alone.
I loved it.
Traveling alone isn’t for everyone. It’s just the truth. Some people will find it more stressful than freeing.
I thought I would be one of those people. I was not excited about undertaking this trip alone.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Being alone in a new city, I learned so much about myself, how I function, and how much I rely on others.
Long story short, you’ll never know until you try.
So try.
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