I didn’t quit my job because I wasn’t good in what I was doing. I didn’t resign because I didn’t enjoy my work environment. I felt extremely sad to leave. I had excellent bosses, fantastic colleagues, creative tasks I loved. I had an office on the top floor with an elegant glass wall and a window view to the nature. A dull coffee machine simmering in the corner. My town, my people, my challenges – mine, everything was mine. Almost all strong 80% of pure pleasure.
But how could you satisfy with 80 if also 100 exist? Life is too short for it. Too short not to strive for more. Yes I am not settling and you shouldn’t either.
So, some months later…
“Pzzzzt,” I hear my phone vibrating next to my bed. I am waking up in Kyrgyzstan’s capital, in a random hostel room, outside freezing cold winter. In fact I was the only person in the whole hostel.
Phone rings. A new message from an unknown number. “For sure the phone operator saying that I have used up all my data,” I was sleepily thinking, but checked the message either way.
“Good morning! A cup of hot chocolate is waiting for you in the kitchen!” I read surprisingly. Phone operators do not offer hot chocolate to my knowledge (how inconsiderate of them, right?).
Hot chocolate sounded awesome, but even more I was interested in who in this world made it for me. I hadn’t made any friends yet.
I stumbled downstairs and opened the door. And what did my eyes see? Two German backpackers handing me creamy hot chocolate. I met them a few nights before quite briefly as they left the hostel the day I arrived.
Several days later – after discovering the town together – we tried to remember how we became friends in the first place. The conclusion? Pretty classic. “You bought me off with sugar,” I laughed.
Now let’s go back to my old and more stable life for a second. What was the main thing that was holding me back?
Most probably I was seeking validation that there – > on the world’s open playground, out of my safe cocoon <- I won’t be alone. “And do you see now, life has proven itself once again that nevertheless I took the ticket for one it is rather a family ticket,” I can tell myself now.
There are so many other travelers. Solo travelers. Couples. Also solo women. Hundreds of thousands. All of them have felt fear, but they have still gone. And no, they do not feel constantly lonely. The opposite – finding friends on the road is easier than ever. The safety net is out there, you just don’t know it yet.
Who would win the title for “The Friendliest and Open Nationality”? The solo travelers. One hundred percent. And you can find them everywhere – hostels, cafes, bars, streets, hiking trails, planes, trains, beaches and jungles. You are not alone. But as a solo traveler you have the freedom to be if you wish. And if you don’t find your tribe in one hostel, you can count on finding them in the next one.
First time traveling alone will make your stomach turn. All of it seems a little bit frightening, but this heart filling and bubbling excitement is far greater. So, if you believe you are the only one to be afraid to travel solo, then no, no you are not alone. And when you are under the impression that this feeling fades away with all the next adventures, then no, no it does not disappear. At first sight this scary unknown – the one about your brain creates oh so many creepy scenarios while daydreaming in the office – becomes that “something” that again and again lures you back to the road.
For many it comes as a surprise that traveling alone can be rather so social that time to time you need to take a break and find time just for yourself.
Long live not settling for something! Long live going after your dreams! Be it traveling, be it a new hobby, be it a new business or why not a new office, if it gives you the feeling of going after something you want.
