What solo travel taught me

An entire year has passed since the day I left everything behind to pursue my dream of travelling to Australia. I can’t even begin to put in to words the nerves and excitement I felt! Australia was the place that I had dreamed of visiting for as long as I can remember, so February 2018 was the month that I stepped on a plane to begin my solo adventure. I spent just under three months travelling the east coast of Australia and exploring the beautiful beaches of Bali. My trip was filled with the most amazing experiences, however also came with facing a lot of challenges, overcoming obstacles and facing the unknown. I wouldn’t change a second of my travels, I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to see the places I’ve seen, experience the amazing things I did and to meet the people that I would never have had the chance to otherwise. Most of all, I learnt a lot during my time away. Considering my travels feel a thousand miles away from my current circumstances, I thought it would be nice to reflect on all the things I discovered from my little adventure.


 

-          I’m braver than I think. We spend so much time and energy doubting ourselves, listing the negatives and thinking about ‘what could go wrong’, it’s so easy to forget just how strong we really are. If catching a flight to the other side of the world doesn’t scream brave, I also faced many fears/anxieties whilst away. The one thing that always stands out is the sky dive, I mean if jumping out of a plane doesn’t scream bravery, I have no idea what does! There were so many times that I wanted to back out, not just of the sky dive, but of the entire trip! I spent the first week or so extremely homesick and it took a lot of willpower not to cave in and book a flight home. But, I didn’t, I stuck it out and saw everything I had planned to and for those wondering, I did jump out of the plane (for the skydive, of course!)
 
-          Nothing grows from our comfort zone. This one is pretty self-explanatory. We all love comfort, familiar faces, places and routines. A comfort zone is great, it’s just so… comfortable? However, it’s when you step out of that comfort zone that you get a glimpse of what you can really achieve, and how much of the world there really is outside of your bubble.

-           You don’t need to depend on others to pursue your dreams. I quite often hear people saying that they want to go somewhere, or do something, but can’t find anyone to go with. I was also pretty guilty of this, I’d constantly be waiting for someone to agree to make plans because the idea of doing it solo was, quite frankly, terrifying. Since my trip, my opinion on this has completely changed. Solo travel is nowhere near as scary as you think it is, wherever you want to go or whatever you want to do, I guarantee there will be hundreds of others doing it alone too. When you meet people travelling, you become very close, very quickly! I met one of my now closest friends in Bali, she shares the same love for travel as me and a few months later we were back on a plane taking another trip together!

-          That feeling over overwhelming terror makes me thrive. I’ve always been a little bit of an adrenaline junkie/risk taker. That feeling when your hearts beating out of your chest, your legs feel like jelly and nausea just completely takes over. Don’t get me wrong, at the time it’s not fun, in fact it’s terrifying! But the feeling afterwards? No words. It just makes me want to do it again and again.

-          Family/Home/Friends are everything. Spending time away from the people that you love and your home comforts makes you realise just how important they are to you. We are all a little guilty of taking things/people for granted, quite often without even realising it! Being thousands of miles away made me realise just how important the people in my life are to me, both family and the friends that are like family, and I will always be grateful for them. As well as that, I was just as happy to have a clean kitchen to cook in and to not be sleeping on a bunk bed in a room with 7 other people!! Sometimes, it’s just the little things that matter!

-          There is so much of the world to see. It is so easy to get caught up in things, working a full time job, doing our usual hobbies, going to our usual places, it’s no wonder that we forget how big of a world is out there. Before I went away, people would tell me that I would for sure get the ‘travel bug’ and no, that’s not a sickness bug from dodgy food or drinking the tap water (although that’s equally as common!) The travel bug is for sure a real thing, and I well and truly caught it!! It’s quite simply, the desire to travel, travel and when you’ve done that, travel some more! My time away and all of the amazing places that I saw gave me a taste of what’s out there. We have such a huge, beautiful world. There are so many places to see and so many people to meet out there, you just have to make it happen! I now have a forever growing list of the places I want to visit, I can’t wait to start ticking them off!




 
So for any of you contemplating booking that plane ticket for a solo adventure, I’d say do it! I can promise that you won’t regret it.

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