WHY TRAVEL ALONE
Step outside your comfort zone Solo travel allows you to step outside your comfort zone. To approach strangers as if they're already friends. In hostels, everyone is there for the same reason. We're all searching for something, you could say-- for adventure, excitement, life, love, something new and scary. We're all the same, no matter how different our accents may be. See what you're capable of It isn't until we have stepped out into the great unknown that we really see what we're capable of. Once we make that beautifully terrifying leap of faith, stupidity, or whatever you'd like to call it (for me it was a, "well, here goes nothing!") into the thing that scares you, you'll be unstoppable. But you can do it. You'll master public transit and foreign currency, exchange rates and bartering. And hey, you might even pick up bits of languages here and there. Had someone told me years ago that I'd be where I am today, a native Philadelphian living 1,000 miles away in sunny Florida, having just traveled the world alone, I wouldn't have believed them. Being alone is a beautiful thing I truly believe you have to be happy with yourself before you can be happy with another person. When wandering the sprawling labyrinths of Sevilla in the early morning hours or seated outside the Kafka cafe in Prague, there is no time to dwell on the past, be sad, or lonely; there is only the present moment and all its beauty. There is gratitude, awe, and wonder. There is curiosity and a deep comfort knowing you and all those around you too are part of this beautiful world, this moment. You're more open When traveling alone, there isn't any familiar conversation to hide behind. Without a friend or a phone to turn, you're more willing to make friends at the hostel, the cafe, the bar, or the event you're at. Plus, you seem more approachable and less intimidating, so go say hello! You're on your own schedule All the walking and sightseeing takes a lot out of a body. Sometimes it's nice to take the day off and relax at a cafe with a book and a notebook, to sit in a park, or by the river. Your itinerary just may not match up with a friend's, and that's just fine; this is your trip, after all, so listen to your body and your heart, and do what you want. |
Alyssa ShainaWriter, reader, believer. Archives
September 2016
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