On Traveling Alone

I decided to travel to Chicago after my friend ask me about my plan for the break. I spontaneously bought the train ticket, booked the cheapest Airbnb, packed my bag with a few clothes, and jumped on the bus to go. It is weird because I haven't gone or traveled anywhere that far completely alone, with my own money, for the rest of my life. I did not tell anymore, not friends or even family. If I got robbed, accident, or murdered, no one would know. It was pretty scary. I was constantly trying to reassure myself that things would be okay and I would have a great time.

Usually, when people travel, they would pick a quality hotel with modern services in a convenient location right in the city's center. But I chose to stay in a living room of a suburban house 45 minutes away from the center. This brought tremendous pain and inconvenience for me in terms of basically everything. There was a time when I went back to my stay late, and the only train available was delayed, and I had to wait for 3 hours until 4 am in the subway station, then had to walk for another 15 minutes just to get to the room finally.

I feel like the tougher and harsher you get from something, the more enjoyable and fulfilling you realize, even when you are in the middle of suffering. And I can always see the positive out of all the things that happened to me. I got to talk with lots of people in the neighbors, on the subway, in the mall, and on the street. The homeless, unemployed, tour guide, bartender, jazz guitarist. They all look strange and distant from the outside. But when you get to listen to their little stories, you realize they are all human beings who have unique backgrounds with kind hearts, you thought the world seems to be more bearable, and suddenly, you have more faith in humanity.

One of the perks of traveling alone is having a sense of independence, solitude, and freedom. You can go wherever you like with your schedule. You have time to think and contemplate your life. You got to listen and talk to your little voice inside about how you enjoy the architecture of the buildings, the abstraction of the drawings and sculptures, every the single note of a Blue song when the bass player soloed, when you have a bottle of beer at a small blue music night, walk alone on the road full of people, or having dinner in a crowded restaurant. Only you in this pale blue dot know your feeling and your world of mind, bewildered by how vast and beautiful the city and the world are. You are like everyone, trying to figure out why we are all here together. And you can still do something to make your life and others' lives more fulfilling even though it's just a short time of existence. You are living in the moment. You get closer to understanding your inner self.

Also, I don't think we emphasized enough how malleable our mindset and world view is when we can move out of our current environment to change the perspective that we have been stuck and trying to deal with for a long time. People could ask you why don't you travel with someone? Why don't you live with your parents instead of insisting on moving out? Why drop out or transfer when there is nothing wrong with the school? Why leave the country instead of staying and getting a decent job? Why quit the job when it paid you a decent fortune? Why try to get to Mars, isn't Earth enough for you? Why try breaking the simulation? Isn't the universe sufficient for you?

Changing the environment is hard. After all, it's part of your life where it's comfortable because everyone around comes to terms with it. When you do something odd like that, they think you are out of your mind. But isn't the reason why you do something because it's worthwhile and because it's hard? If I know that doing this makes me get closer to the version of myself that I want to become eventually, why don't you do it now? Life is too short to wait.

If you have a little voice inside saying you should do something, as people usually say it’s “guts”, usually good things will happen when you do it. I think it’s your inner self trying to reach out to you like you are trying to communicate with your partner, and traveling alone is one of the great ways to communicate with yourself.