This past summer, I took a trip. Sure, I “blew” all of my teenage savings (and then some), but the trip is something I will never regret, and definitely something I will never forget. While some may look at it as a waste of money I could’ve used for my education, I believe I learned more from my travels than any summer class could’ve taught me.
It was my last summer before big university life, and I wanted to see something new before I settled in one city for a couple of years. It was my first time on a plane, first time abroad, and the first time I was truly doing something for myself, on my own. It is something I could talk about for hours, but I’ll spare the details for another time and express my greatest takeaway:
Traveling solo, no matter the destination, is one of the most liberating and rewarding things a young woman can do for herself today.
Of course, this isn’t new information. And while everyone’s experience leaves them with something different, many throughout history have put into words something that is impossible for me to fully explain. Here are seven resonating quotes, all from women, that inspired me prior to my trip, and continue to inspire me today.
1. “As a woman I have no country. As a woman my country is the whole world.” – Virginia Woolf, writer
2. “Loving life is easy when you are abroad. Where no one knows you and you hold your life in your hands all alone, you are more master of yourself than at any other time.” – Hannah Arendt, political theorist
3. “Life shrinks or expands in proportion with one’s courage.” – Anaïs Nin, writer
4. “The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” – Eleanor Roosevelt, politician, diplomat, activist
5. “If you don’t get out of the box you’ve been raised in, you won’t understand how much bigger the world is.” – Angelina Jolie, actress, filmmaker, humanitarian
6. “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” – Helen Keller, author, activist
7. “I am not the same, having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world.” – Mary Anne Radmacher, author
*Graphics by the author