Growing up, I never seriously considered travel as part of a lifestyle. I occasionally traveled to other states with my dad when he traveled for work or crossed the Canadian border with my mom to go to IKEA. However, these trips never felt particularly life-changing. It wasn’t until my senior year of high school that I grew tired of my small New England city and began craving something new before heading off to college. With cabin fever getting to my head, I scoured the internet in search of summer opportunities that would help me escape my winter slump.
At the time, I was heavily influenced by my Instagram and YouTube feeds and loved the idea of doing a girls’ trip abroad. I brought it up to my friends and we all agreed it would be the perfect way to spend time together before leaving for college. But as group chats were made and destinations were discussed, I slowly realized that my girls trip of 15 18-year-old girls was not going to happen. Between summer schedules, finances, conflicts of interest, our plans fell apart. I knew I needed a Plan B for the summer.
During my winter search, I stumbled across a job listing for a stable hand in rural Germany. I didn’t initially think it was something I would do in the future, but I saved the listing in my tabs without a thought. By spring, my plans with my friends had officially fallen through. One night at dinner, my family asked me what my summer was looking like. Knowing that my girls’ trip was no longer happening, I mentioned the job I had seen months earlier. They perked up and asked whether I had applied. I admitted I hadn’t and that it was a tentative plan, but as the conversation continued, they encouraged me to take the leap, convincing me that it would be an opportunity I wouldn’t regret.
That summer, I found myself working on a horse farm in a rural Bavarian town. In the mornings, I cleaned barn aisles and drove a tractor. In the afternoons, I explored my small town. Being thrown into everyday life in Germany was exhilarating. Taking public transport, shopping at grocery stores and asking for directions became something I had to approach from an entirely new angle. I often made a fool of myself in the process. Once, I spent 15 minutes staring at an Aldi fridge looking for eggs, only to learn from a store clerk they don’t refrigerate eggs in Germany. But situations like these gave my brain the challenge I had been craving during the monotony of high school. Each day, I learned something new and felt the triumph of understanding a world outside my own. On weekends, I had the freedom to explore other parts of Central Europe. One weekend I was in Prague and the next I was in Berlin. This supplemented my experience abroad, as I got to touch drastically different cultures just a few hours away from Bavaria. I was provided with recurring opportunities to troubleshoot and improve the way I navigated foreign environments.
Since working in Germany, I fell in love with exploring the world around me. I have now traveled solo to nine countries in Europe and Asia-Pacific, and I’m only 20. Whenever I share this, people often think I’m insane. Many tell me solo traveling is irrational, especially for someone my age and gender. And I get it– solo traveling requires the exact skills women, especially young women, aren’t typically associated with. So why in the world would I enter an arena where I have to test them firsthand?
As we get older, it’s hard to stray from the qualities you develop when you are younger. Our identities become familiar, offering a sense of security. If you’ve spent your whole life being passive or dependent on others, breaking away from that becomes scary. That is why it’s important to develop empowering traits when you are younger. Solo travel as a young woman takes courage. It requires financial management, self-advocacy, independent navigation and executive decision–making – skills that girls are often culturally steered away from. Traveling alone forces you to practice these skills in real time. You develop confidence among a range of environments, including your school, office and home. You have the comfort of knowing you have pushed your boundaries before and you can do it again.
I believe my story is an important one to share because it demonstrates that young women are capable of maneuvering through the world independently. However, solo travel will look different for everyone. Whether it’s a flight to Mexico or a road trip to St. Augustine, all forms of solo travel are valuable. So whatever you do, keep moving, test yourself in a new landscape and discover what you’re capable of.