A personal recount of the classic travel junkie pipeline
I didn’t travel very much as a child.
And if I did, it was a few days of laying around in a hotel or random person’s house (someone you’ve never met that has apparently known your dad since they were kids) while he went fishing or drinking with some old friends. He wanted to spend time with his family, but was never physically around. Most of the memories I have of ‘vacations’ are of me lazing around on the floor somewhere listening to the mechanical whirr of a ceiling fan identical to the one at home.
He was a single dad, I get it. Money is the only thing on your mind when you don’t have a lot of it. But long story short, there’s a certain density to your identity when you’re emotionally neglected. It’s heavy. Confused. And until you take a good look at what’s causing this quiet, internal friction, life feels deeply unsatisfying.
The core function of human beings, in my opinion, is to transmute and alchemize energy through the complex way we consciously feel and understand our emotions. It’s the one thing that actually prevents us from being 100% efficient in our day-to-day life because we don’t seem to have a singular function or goal like plants and animals do.
weird analogy incoming
I planted a vegetable garden pretty recently and I realized as I was watering it today that I’ve been assuming it’s growing and yielding at 100%. It’s not choosing to grow less today. It’s just growing as much as its nutrition and water content. Right? It’s just not that simple for us, but I think it can be.
end of weird analogy
The thing is, I didn’t think about this for a huge part of my life. Then I took myself on my first solo trip with my first big girl paycheck and I’ve never stopped planning the next one.
You can journal, which I did and still do, learn all that you can about manifestations, spiritual journeys, self development, pausing on all of it to build a corporate career, take a break from a 9-5 to work on yourself again, but time and time again, nothing taught me more about myself than when I traveled to a completely brand new place where I didn’t know anyone. Traveling isn’t the only way to do this of course, but it’s the idea of unplugging. Whether that’s taking a hiatus from social media or taking an FMLA from work, you need a way to observe yourself for an undisturbed timeframe.
After prioritizing travel into my self-care routine, I learned:
- You won’t be able to have clarity on how fragmented you actually are until you start to become whole again.
- Being witnessed by complete strangers helps you see your uniqueness that you, and even your loved ones, forget about.
- You’ll always surprise yourself with how you move through the world when you’re alone.
- Merging the not-so-great parts of your identity into who you present yourself to be gets easier and makes you so much more beautiful.
- There’s always a theme to your old habits and finding that theme chooses the vehicle in which you change under (mine is very clearly freedom lol).
I initially started this journey as a way to share stories about my trips, favorite gear, solo travel tips, and everything in between. But as I wrote my newsletters I noticed a little breadcrumb in all of my drafts: personal transformation. I do believe that for the ones who feel stagnant, tied to responsibilities, both the ones you did and didn’t sign up for, feel confused no matter how much therapy or journaling they do, traveling might be the secret ingredient for you like it is for me. I know what you’re thinking:
this is the classic ‘running away to escape your problems’ thing
but if you do this right, it’s a way to run towards yourself, not away. You add air and movement to all of that unprocessed garbage because a change in environment forces you to evolve. Your vices are harder to reach for when you’re not at home. All you need are a couple of rituals before and after your travels, smart planning, and you can do this too. I’d like to show you how to start solo traveling if you haven’t done it before, in awhile, or feel like you can’t because of kids, partners, or work.
And if you don’t care for the invitation, all good. Stay for the stories on my favorite places.
Thanks for reading the first post on Nomad’s Nook, connect with me if this resonated. I’d love to hear your stories.
-Cindy
