5 benefits of travelling solo early on in life

- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Oliver Wendell said that travelling solo is one of the most liberating experiences and I cannot agree enough. Few people can see the beauty travel has to offer. Be grateful if you're a lucky one.

Walk barefoot through the dusty terrains. Jump into the ocean because it seduced you. Camp by the river in a forest full of bears. Be welcomed in the home of a stranger. Shut your phone and go where your heart desires. Greet every homeless person you walk past. Laugh with the locals. Sit down in a busy square and look at the people. Some busy, some calm, some laughing. Perhaps the laughing mother comforting her child just lost her husband, perhaps the girl in a hurry was fired from her job yesterday or perhaps the guy sitting alone in the distance just moved away from his best friend. For you do not know their life's story; you only see what they show you; Aaah! no! you only see what you perceive and make of it. Live that moment and be grateful. Let the busy, calm and happy people disappear in the distance.

Who should travel solo?

If you are someone with an unwavering love for exploration. If you're open to accepting new ideas. If you're curious about everything. You ought to travel as soon as you can. Your age, finances and professional pursuits should not be a barrier.

There is no right age to begin, India is pretty affordable and you don't need a plan to begin travelling.

Go with the flow, set out on impromptu expeditions and expect very little.

1. Know yourself better

Venturing out all by yourself at a young age makes you ready for the life ahead. It forces you to make your own decisions and there's no one to validate them. it's you and your thoughts. This helps you learn things about yourself that you were unaware of. In the process of discovering the world outside we end up discovering our inner world too.

2. Making your own decisions and solving problems

Living by yourself is such an underrated skill and experience that gets you ready for the world ahead and makes you resilient in the face of hardships and misfortune. No travel plan goes as we would please. There are always unforeseeable hurdles along the way and navigating them makes you ready for the problems life throws at you.

3. Meeting different people

We, humans, are influenced by everything we see and do. When we meet people who've had very different lives and upbringings from ours we see what's possible. We get influenced by some, emulate some and critique the other. We learn a lot when we are challenged with accepting unfamiliar beliefs and opinions. We meet different personalities with distinct experiences and interesting stories to tell.

4. Have experiences in life

"You are the sum of the stories you can tell," said Beau Taplin. Experiences truly make you rich. Travel to feel, see and go through something new. At an early age it give you a plethora of happy and sad, timid and courageous, isolated and social moments to talk about. The saline sea breeze that blinded you in the mediterranean, the flock of birds that greeted you while paragliding or the firey volcano that welcomed you with a puff of ash are not things that happen everyday. Hence, live the moment before they turn into memories.

5. Leaving your comfort zone

Going to an unknow place by yourself can be intimidating. Those who are courageous enough to look the callenges in the eye and take them head on are the ones who achieve greatness. The more you put yourself in tough situations, the more you realise the capabilities of the human mind and body. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable and see how you begin to enjoy it after a point of time.

Thank you for spending your time reading this post and I hope you learnt something new.

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