One of the best, one of the worst

Solo travel has a few perks, but also a few drawbacks.

One of my favorite things about traveling is taking really early morning flights or later night flights. On my recent trip to Texas I took a later flight back home to Minnesota. The plane was only about half full of people and I lucked out to having an entire row to myself. You best bet I put the other arm rests up and stretched my legs down the entire row of seats and got comfortable. Despite having an hour and a half delay due to a burnt out navigation light bulb and not getting home until 2am, stretching out on the entire row to catch some sleep and seeing all the beautiful city lights as we flew over the country made up for the delay and flying later at night. Also, have you ever seen a sunrise/sunset from an airplane window seat?! Because I 10/10 recommend seeing that at least a few times in your life.

Solo traveling is also more freeing than traveling with another person, family or friends. Free to make all the decisions; when to wake up, what/when to eat, what activities you want to do, how much time you want to spend in one place, and if you want to stay out late. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy traveling with others; but there's a huge shift in personal development that happens when you're exploring a new place completely on your own. Having personal awareness being a single female and going somewhere new is also an important skill to have. Maybe I've been a bit naive when it's come to taking all these adventures by myself; but one of my favorite sayings lately has been, "I just have blind faith that everything is going to work out". And I think that's a very true statement and a really important manifestation to put out into the universe to make it come true and to truly feel capable of tackling whatever challenges come your way, in any capacity. Having some situational awareness is also key to just using your common sense to make sure you're in safe situations/surroundings so you don't get caught off guard. Someone always knows where I'm hiking and I'm sure to check in at the end of the day when I return; and I try to do all of my sightseeing/activities during the day time so I'm not wondering an area by myself at night.

The elephant in the room when talking about solo travel is that you are indeed traveling completely by yourself. This can be quite scary and a daunting thing to some people. I know the first time I ever took a trip by myself, I got as far as my hotel room, unpacked my bags, and then reality sank in. "What did I just do? Now what?". I sort of panicked. I had a few fleeting thoughts about just staying in my hotel room on my phone and watching TV. But, I came prepared for these thoughts. I had made a list of all the things I wanted to do/see prior to getting to New Orleans so I simply grabbed my go-bag and set my mind to something on my list. I didn't allow my fear of being alone overtake my desire for adventure. (And I didn't travel halfway across the country just to sit in my hotel room). Now, I still make a list of all the things I want to do/see wherever I am traveling and just pick things from the list on whatever I feel like doing that day.

Traveling by yourself is not always easy; but just like anything else, the more you do it, the more confident you become. There are so many things I would have missed out on, people I wouldn't have met, food I wouldn't have tried/eaten, and beautiful places I wouldn't have ever seen if I waited for the day that someone would travel with me.