Traveling alone is a delight , but it requires some degree of discipline, otherwise you will only be increasing the likelihood of facing trouble.Well, I didn’t come to give you any advice now, on the contrary, I came to give you a spoiler of what will happen long before your trip comes to an end .
7 things you will learn by traveling alone
Traveling alone is the act of reducing the probability of facing trouble, and to do this the secret is to have organization , planning and a margin of safety .
What no one tells you is that organization , planning and a safety margin are not only requirements for having a good trip, they are also the three steps necessary to change absolutely everything in the life of those who return from a trip.
You will become smarter
Traveling for days, weeks or months on your own, it’s impossible not to be more connected to yourself, others and what’s happening around you.
In a group we share pleasures, but also obligations, which gives us the luxury of switching on autopilot from time to time.
Alone, sooner or later we learn to organize ourselves, check, verify, distrust and intuit in a much more practical, concise and attentive way.
You will become more confident
How can you not trust the guy who crossed Europe with the same success as someone who crosses Paulista Avenue? And even if you don’t realize it, as time goes by, first-time tourists start to accumulate experience without realizing that they are becoming masters in boarding, disembarking and travel procedures.
Look, it may not seem like it now, but with confidence also comes the desire to go further and further: your posture changes , and so your limits become increasingly distant.
You will learn to communicate better
You will become a more communicative person. You will learn the best ways to communicate in other languages, even if it is just using your hands to gesture whatever is necessary and at no time will you make a fool of yourself.
Whenever a struggle in another language is approaching, you will be frighteningly quicker than it: you will use similar words to say what you think, what you want and what you need.
You will relax, guilt free
You will learn to appreciate a good night’s sleep, eat less and take more time. You will visit fantastic places like churches, museums and ruins, but you will discover that nothing is better than a lawn in a public park or a cup of the best coffee in the world before sunset.
You will abandon fixed ideas
You will realize that there is no bed, rice or friends like the ones you have at home, but when we discover that the best thing about a new place is the possibility of leaving old habits behind, we learn to deal with new hypotheses, different possibilities.
You will be a more approachable person
While still being smart, little by little you will start talking to strangers, making new best friends and drinking with strangers.
When we lose the ties of everyday life, those around us realize that they can get closer and that is how new friendships begin.
There are people who are very different from who we are, who we know and who we are used to seeing every day – it seems like magic, but all we have to do is lose old prejudices and new doors open .
You will be a more interesting person
You will be the friend who knows how to say “beer” in different languages, the guy who knows what language is spoken in Belgium.
You will have friends in different corners of the world, you will listen to foreign music while drinking with the locals – you will be proud of the places you have visited, the choices you have made and the opinions that have changed.
Traveling alone is always a great journey. I know it sounds corny to say, especially as I’m about to end the text, but be prepared: when we travel alone, the first port of call is always ourselves .