To be young is to be able to live without constraints, obligations or responsibilities. It is to have your whole life ahead of you, and to have a million different paths to choose from, some unwalked and some worn. At 16 years old, this became very evident to me. Knowing how important this time in my life was, I decided to take a big step in finding myself and exploring the world as I saw it by travelling solo across the country to Rhode Island. I was able to become more aware about myself, and fell in love with the freedom and spontaneity that came with feeling young and alive in the world. Here is my experience, and the many reasons why you too should take a solo trip:
I wanted to visit a place that I had little knowledge of, and somewhere no one else I knew had been before. I hoped to just walk off the plane with no expectations and a blank slate, ready to be filled with new experiences and good vibes. Not only did Rhode Island fit this description, but it was also home to Brown University, a school which I was very interested in attending at the time. The state is a close neighbor to other East Coast places like Boston and New York, and also just a car ride away from Providence, Rhode Island. Thus, I decided Rhode Island was the best place for me so I enrolled in a class at Brown for the summer and found a place to live on campus. Soon, I was on a plane heading Rhode Island, ready for a 2 week trip with me, myself and I.
The plane ride consisted of many hours and a short layover in New Jersey (FYI: Always stay updated on your flight because the terminal could always change, and it is NOT fun finding out last minute just before you are supposed to board). Upon exiting the plane, I felt a rush of exhilaration. At 16 years old, I was alone…by choice! No one knew my name, and it felt amazing. I could be whoever I wanted to be. On the ride to the university via shuttle, I felt that I could truly breathe. Not only because I was no longer being bombarded by the LA smog, but also because I no longer felt weighed down by my past, my mistakes, my ties to other people, obligations or reputations. I was a blank slate, truly young and inexplicably alive.
I will never forget the night we went out past curfew, walking through the brightly lit streets of Providence. We watched men on boats light up the lake in the center of the city, with balls of fire for the coming WaterFire festival. And we talked for hours on hours, just about ourselves and who we each wanted to become. It is an enlightening experience to reflect on and deconstruct who you are, to then rebuild yourself again in the image you want without any expectations. I admit, I stretched some truths and highlighted some aspects of my life to these people that maybe did not deserve as much exaggeration then I let on. If I was surrounded by people I knew, I never would have said such things. But, I was not. I was alone and listening to myself tell these people my stories, which made me realize the parts of my life that were important to me and that I wanted people to know. I learned about myself in ways that I had not expected.
