Surreal only begins to explain how I feel about the journey ahead of me. Over 6 months ago, I decided that I wanted to make my dream of traveling come true. I have been fortunate enough to travel a lot with my sport. Living, training, and competing in different countries has only made me hungrier to continue exploring the world. I think a lot about how we evaluate and guide our lives. For me, I derive a lot of value out of the experiences and life lessons travelling gives us.
After recently deciding to retire from high performance sport and graduating from university, I saw an opportunity to travel and I took it. Initially, my plan was to just go to Portugal and Spain. It wasn’t too long after that I branched off from this plan to something much larger. I recognized the opportunity I have in my life right now; being young, not being tied down to major commitments at home, and the state of the world (climate change). There are a million reasons to not travel or to wait for a better time to take on something so large. But there is one pivotal reason why I chose to do this now. Choosing to live in the now.I fear if I wait for tomorrow, I could be waiting my whole life. Being present, seizing opportunities, and being fluid in life are some of the principles that I am using to guide my decisions and actions.
I chose to tackle Europe for this trip because I am fairly comfortable there. Europe is no stranger to backpackers and their culture and lifestyle are similar to home. I have also travelled to Europe many times and have become familiar with getting around on my own. I figured this would be a great first solo-backpacking trip for myself as there is still so much of Europe I haven’t seen, and I can experience this new style of travelling in a place I am comfortable with.
I am excited to travel without a suitcase full of sports gear and equipment. I am thrilled and partly overwhelmed about having the freedom to do whatever I want and go wherever I want. Solo backpacking will present a whole new world to me that I am greeting with open arms. But I definitely have some apprehensions.
It is easy to overthink being on my own, being away for so long, and not planning every step of my trip. I am happy and confident being on my own and I have travelled for long periods of time before. The biggest thing that is out of my comfort zone is forcing myself to not plan out everything. I do not want to plan my entire trip before I begin because I want to be open to opportunities. Naturally, not everything will go to plan and I will have a much easier time adjusting to change if I don’t have every step of my trip pre-planned. But it is unsettling to think that I am walking into the unknown. I have a habit of anticipating the future and then organizing and planning my life to prepare for it.
I have been asked countless times, “You’re not going on your own, are you?”. Some people have encouraged my choice to go solo, while others seem to fear for my life. While traveling solo is intimidating, I have absolutely no problem with it. It requires a high level of independence and confidence in decision making – both I am no stranger to. Surely, you have to act smartly and safely, but travellers who think they can lower their guard when in groups are sadly mistaken. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to travel with my friends, but it is so difficult to align schedules, finances, and all variables of life. I am not the type of person to wait around if there is something I want! So here we are.
The next three months have the potential to be life changing. I will face so many new and unexpected experiences and challenges. It is really overwhelming to try to think of my trip in its entirety. So, I am forcing myself not to. There is no point in trying to anticipate a journey when I have no clue what it will entail.
So now, I am sitting here, hours away from my flight with barely a clue of what’s to come. It is a really unfamiliar feeling for me, and I am so ready to embrace the challenge. The one thing I can do to prepare for this trip is to set my intentions. I want to be open minded. I want to walk into every day with minimal plans and just let this journey take the lead. I will meet so many new people that I want to learn from and connect with. I will have to constantly check myself to not think too far ahead. All I want to ask myself is; Where am I now? And where am I going next?
The last thing I want to do that’s really important to me is to document my trip well. I spent some time reading through all of my old blogs from training and travelling since 2016. I really appreciated the time I took to write and reflect on these experiences. Writing and photography are great mediums to capture moments and thoughts that you can cherish for a lifetime. Documenting this trip will be really special for me, and as a bonus, I will be able to share every step of the way with people who mean a lot to me.
I still have a million thoughts in my head that I would like to get out in this blog, but I think this is a good place to wrap up. I feel really lucky to have so many people supporting me and wishing me well on this adventure. I will be posting on my blog and Instagram often for you to follow along with me. Stay in touch!
Hayley
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