Every time we scroll through Instagram, an overwhelming amount of photos of people “living their best life” in a new country pop up. We all know that traveling can be good for you. It’s good for your soul. Traveling allows you to see new places, try new foods, meet new people, and create new memories that will last a lifetime (hopefully).

But there are levels to traveling, especially when you travel alone. It can be scary because you may feel like you’re stepping into the unknown – and you are! And that’s exactly where you need to be. You just don’t realize it yet.

At the time when you booked your ridiculously cheap flight that popped up on your daily travel notifications, all you could think was, “Damn, this $300 roundtrip flight is too good to pass up. Maybe I can convince one of my friends to come,”  but as usual, no one pulls through and you are suddenly on your own. You go back and forth with yourself about whether you should go and the answer is YES! Go before you change your mind. At this point, there’s no sense in wasting money or energy.  You were meant to go alone.

Alright, so today is the day that you fly out. You have been preparing for this trip for the past couple of weeks and now you are pulling up to the airport to take your flight. You are excited, but at the same time you don’t know what to expect. You have done a lot of research on the area you will be staying in and the restaurants you want to try. You probably had a lengthy conversation with your AirBnB host about things to do and tips. You scoured the internet for everything you can find about safety. And at this point, there’s nothing left to do but say,  “fk it. Here we go.”

And as you take your seat for that 10+ hour flight to some place on the other side of the world, you breathe. You might momentarily have a minor panic attack or roll your eyes because 10+ hours on any flight is not ideal. Nevertheless, you start this beautiful journey of unintentionally finding yourself.

But let me tell you, this journey of traveling alone is not all glitz and glamour. It’s also not a complete nightmare. You will encounter shit that makes you uncomfortable and you have to really figure stuff out on your own. You will get lost. There might be language barriers. You might run out of money, if you didn’t plan properly. Your debit/credit card might get deactivated because you forgot to call your bank and tell them about your travels. Your hotel or AirBnB might not look like the pictures you saw online. You might get sick from drinking the unfiltered or unbottled water – you know the regular faucet water that everyone tells you not to drink, but you take your chances anyway. You might miss your flight. You will encounter hagglers trying to get you to spend more money than is necessary for certain things. As a woman traveling alone, we are always looking behind our backs. We’ve heard that in some countries, men are aggressive – so we carry that everywhere we go. Some of ya’ll might get robbed (for those who refuse to blend in) – I don’t wish that upon anyone – but just keeping it real.

And I don’t say all of this to scare anyone – I say all of this to let you know that things happen and it will force you to figure it out. When you are placed in an unknown situation or territory alone – your senses are highly activated. You are subconsciously always on fight or flight mode. As you should be.

And yet, despite the possibility of these things happening, you will have the BEST TIME OF YOUR LIFE!

You didn’t realize how strong you were to walk the streets of an unknown, yet magical city. You ran into some really dope people and made new friends. And now you are at some party that a DJ you met on the bus invited you to. The place is packed and you are hella vibing out. Everyone is dancing. You feel free as fuck. The next day you wake up and walk to the beach to watch the sunrise and eat breakfast. It’s quiet but then you see some people from the night before and they invite you out to ride motorcycles and go surfing on the other side of the island. You don’t hesitate to say yes. You meet this dope person and instantly hit it off. You spent the whole week of your vacation with this other person who showed you their world.

And maybe you fell in love.

You were invited by the cashier at the souvenir store to have dinner with his family. And of course, you go with an empty stomach. You sat down with a little abuelita over cafesito to hear all of her stories growing up in el campo. You eat amazing food that is made with love. Every fucking bite is made with love. And you tell yourself that this is the best meal you’ve ever eaten. And as each day comes, it brings with it another adventure. You never know what the next day will be like, but you know that it’s going to be great.

And that’s what traveling alone is like. You learn to be open to the possibilities – both good and bad. You mentally prepare yourself for anything to happen. Your patience is tested on a whole new level.  It is a crash course in life for some of us, but we come out stronger because of it. We become more compassionate, more cultured, more appreciative of the things and people back home. And because you’ve stepped so far outside of your comfort zone while traveling abroad alone, you can’t even stand being in it anymore. You become unapologetic for who you are and what you like. What made you fearful in the beginning has now become your motivation to go after so much more in life – whether that’s in your career or your next solo trip. A little taste of traveling alone will have you doing all kinds of crazy things, like dutifully following your dreams.

Crazy, right?

But you figure, if you can survive while traveling alone, then anything is possible.

All Images Copyright © Vannessa Sanchez