- Angela, an American academic, started traveling alone in November.
- Angela said she felt burnt out after years of not taking time off.
- She felt constrained by the expectations of marriage, but found traveling alone liberating.
This told essay is based on conversations with Angela, an academic and content creator in her early 40s who is traveling alone in Europe. To protect her privacy, Angela requested that her last name not be published. This essay has been edited for length and clarity.
In 2020, I experienced a major setback. I got engaged and was supposed to get married, but then I realized that my fiancé was not the right person for me. I lived my life in fear of other people's expectations and criticism. It was one of the most difficult years of my life.
I was born in Beijing and grew up in a traditional Chinese family who taught me that success in academics was the only way to succeed in life. I spent most of my time studying and couldn't travel or travel. Enjoy your hobbies.
In the early 2000s, I moved to the United States alone to further my education as an international student. I lived in Florida, Texas, and Southern California before moving to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2017. Although she faced language and cultural barriers at first, she quickly adapted to life in the United States. I am what you would call a “third culture individual.” I identify with both American and Chinese culture. I feel at home in the Bay Area, which celebrates diversity and inclusion.
Since immigrating to the United States, I have completed my Ph.D. in Information Science and currently works as an academic at a university. After living in the United States for the past 20 years, I am also a naturalized American citizen.
I broke off my engagement and traveled alone.
Aside from visiting family in China (my last trip to Beijing was in 2018), I had never traveled alone until last year. I have always lived my life according to my parents' expectations. Like most Chinese parents, they expected me to succeed in school, get married, and have children by a certain age. I never felt like I was doing enough.
After my engagement broke off, I worked on healing myself.Last year I I decided to try something I had never done before: travel abroad alone. For the first time, I felt like I was putting myself first and what I wanted to do first. I started documenting my solo travels on TikTok and Instagram.
I found it easy to connect with people overseas
My journey started with a solo trip to Denmark and Sweden in November. A month later, I embarked on a month-long solo trip to eight cities in Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, and the Vatican. Then in February, I traveled to Iceland by myself to celebrate my birthday.
In addition to regular holidays, you can accumulate more than 30 days of vacation per year. Since I work at a university, I also keep an academic calendar. I took three weeks off for a month-long trip to Europe and a week off over Christmas break.
We spent about $8,000 total on that trip. Thanks to my years of hard work, I have enough savings to fund my travels.
One of my favorite things about traveling solo was meeting and interacting with people from all walks of life. I'm a sociable and outgoing person, so staying in hostels helped me meet other travelers. But I realized that I could easily meet people anywhere just by starting a conversation and saying hi.
I met another solo traveler at the Colosseum in Rome. After taking pictures of each other, we ended up chatting and spent the rest of the day exploring the city and eating dinner together. I met some different people as well.
Traveling solo helped push me out of my comfort zone
Traveling alone is a very powerful experience. I have complete freedom to decide what I want to do and where I want to go. I enjoy solitude when I want and socialize when I want.
What makes solo travel beautiful are the chance encounters. I have made a lot of self-discovery and self-growth. I learned that I don't have to live my life a certain way. The world is big and there are many ways to live a fulfilling life. It helped me gain clarity and put things into perspective.
