Sometimes when I’m asked to tell my story, I say it this way: “A dozen years ago, I went to South America, and I never came back.”
But I didn’t remain in South America, either. My passport’s stamped and worn pages tell the tale of coming and goings to a smattering of places across the world, returning home, and setting out again and again to new horizons.
During that first trip, a possibility from which my whole life grew was planted. The world opened, and something within me expanded past the point of no return.
Travel Toward the Authentic You
Solo travel takes you away from your known world yet somehow leads you closer to yourself. Through better knowing your world, you better understand yourself. Through better understanding yourself, you better understand the world.
I am not talking about just taking a vacation by yourself. I’m talking about leaving the conditioning of country and culture to discover your world. It’s the sort of trip you take to discover the deepest places within, to experience a shift in understanding that comes through an open-ended trip around the world.
Pros and Cons of Solo Travel
There is every reason in the world not to take a trip like this. What about your financial situation? What about your girlfriend? What about your career? What about your bills? What about the dangers of the countries you’re visiting?
To these I say: What about you? What about the you that you will never know until you watch them meet the challenges that travel brings?
I can comb through my memories and see it all so clearly, the ways I nurtured my desire to travel in the face of the doubts and naysayers. I still hear the quiet, meditative music. I see the flickers of three candles illuminating my room, a map of the world and travel books scattered in front of me.
In my mind, I’m reading poetry in that room, and one of my favorites from that time is Walt Whitman’s Song of the Open Road.
Afoot and light-hearted, I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me, leading wherever I choose.
When I dreamt of the future in that old undergraduate apartment, I saw myself with a large backpack on, out discovering the world.
Turning Travel Dreams into Life's Realities
Back then, galivanting across the globe while writing and doing philanthropic work was just a dream. In the last decade, those dreams have been fulfilled again and again.
What used to be a wistful future to hope for are now experiences I draw inspiration from — nights among the artists of Paris, mornings in Thai mountains, sharing a rum with musicians in Havana, assisting children in poverty in Africa, soaking in phosphorescent waters of moonlight beaches, listening to old men bent over dust-covered books filling a night with all they have to say.
All this because I set out in the first place.
Advice for Traveling Solo
My advice to anyone who feels this pull within guiding you to the open road is to follow it at all costs. Follow it past your fears.
Each trip will take shape according to the person embarking upon it. You’ll come to discover what many before you have, that the deepest truths about life cannot fit into a simple statement like, “A dozen years ago, I went to South America, and I never came back.” They can’t be put into words at all.
But they do exist, inside of you. The truth of who you are, how you relate to the world, and your purpose in life are inside of you to discover.
If you feel prodded to set out, recognize that desire as something not separate from yourself but as an inner beckoning to step into the world. The lessons you’ll learn when you heed that call allow what’s within to unfold.
May you have happy trails on the way.
Inspiration for Solo Travel
Find more inspiration that allows you to turn travel dreams into reality at the Seven Corners blog. And don’t forget to sign up for The Wayfinder, a once-monthly newsletter delivered directly to your inbox with all the tips and ideas you need to navigate travel like a pro.
