At some stage of our life we all might have come across a wonderful poem written by Robert Frost.
…Two roads diverged in a wood, and
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
As a kid I never understood its meaning. However I became aware about it after I started travelling. It’s better to travel solo because you get to work on your bucket list, meet new people, plan logistics, gain new experience and empowers you.
What I realized is the best travel companion you can have is yourself. You never return the way you left. You discover this amazing world that is out there for you to explore. Some places are even better than the hype (and the photo-shopped photos)and some are even worse than you heard but this journey of discovering and learning about it yourself is amazing. Since you are not reading about it from someone’s perspective based on their experiences, it is completely and uniquely yours.
It’s totally liberating, and completely rewarding in a way few other experiences in life can match. You would be surprised how much the real you come out when you are in a completely alien environment not knowing any of the people around you.
Is there something you’ve been dying to try that no one is willing to attempt with you? When your partner and friends don’t share every one of your interests, that‘s OK, but its not justified to sacrifice your dreams, especially when all you have to do is get there. A solo trip can be a powerful, introspective, life-changing experience. What more, you’ll learn a lot about yourself in a way that is simply impossible when you’re in the midst of your normal daily routine.
Everyone has different schedules, budgets and travelling interests, so waiting around for the right time and right person to join you is a waste .If you find yourself with some down time, it may be the perfect time to pack your bags and go anyway.
Solo travel can work for anyone, whether you are single, in a relationship, extroverted, or introverted. If you’ve never travelled alone because your first thought is, what would I even do with myself?. I implore you to plan a solo trip immediately. In fact, there is so much you can do when you travel alone that you’ll wonder how you ever managed to commute with someone else in the past.
If travelling makes you a better, smarter person, then commuting alone makes you even super better and smarter. For any of you who may feel uncomfortable even sitting alone at a diner to have breakfast, taking a trip by yourself might seem daunting. Once you take the plunge and get over your fears, you’ll feel a sense of empowerment. A successful solo vacation can inspire you to tackle even more things in life you’ve been afraid to try.
There is a saying in Chinese, 读万卷书 行万里路 (literally translated, read ten thousand books and walk ten thousand miles), to roughly mean that you would learn as much from both. I truly understood the meaning of this phrase now as I started going for solo trips.
Rohini Joshi
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
