My First Solo Transformative Travel at 19

How it began...

I traveled often with my family on vacation as a child, but most of these trips were throughout New England, near our Connecticut home, to the beach in Rhode Island, or to Maine. We also traveled to Florida frequently, spending a lot of time in the Florida Keys. My first international trip was when we took a cruise when I was 12 years old. It stopped in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and in Cozumel. This trip was instrumental in exposing me to other cultures and igniting a lifelong interest in learning about other cultures.

My journey to Los Angeles

My first solo travel was when I was 19 years old and I went to live and go to school in Los Angeles. It was definitely not your typical 'going off to college' trip. I was starting at the university in January, when there are not as many new student orientations and opportunities to connect with others. I was also going to school part time, only taking two classes, so I did not really have a lot of connection to the other students. My living space was a campus apartment where there were a total of 7 of us living. The others were upper level students who had been at the school a couple of years and were already settled in to routines and friend groups.

I really needed to work while living there, as well, but I did not have a car. LA is not the greatest city for public transportation even now, and in the early 90's it was even worse.

This was the first time I had to navigate, not only public transportation in a new city, but living on my own. I was doing it in a city 3000 miles from all of my family and support networks. Cell phones were only just beginning to be a 'thing' at this time. I remember learning how to navigate bus system (with out schedule apps!) to take the bus from my school in East LA to and from the cabaret restaurant/night club that I worked at in West Hollywood. There was not one bus that would take the whole journey so I had to change buses in downtown LA. On the way to work, this was fine, as there were plenty of business people around the bus stops. When I got out of work between 11 PM and 2 AM, I had to navigate the less frequent buses and the multitude of interesting characters that were out in West Hollywood and downtown LA in the middle of the night.

In the four months that I lived there, I grew so much. This was really the definition of transformative travel. Even though I had not left my own country, Los Angeles felt like a foreign country to a young woman who had grown up in rural/suburban Connecticut. Even though I had visited NYC many times, up to that point, it had always been with family or teachers on school trips.

During this time, I learned to start over somewhere new. I discovered strength, courage and perseverance that I never knew I had. I learned how to problem solve and to push past all kinds of fears.

The next adventure...

Since my journey in Los Angeles, I have had numerous really powerful transformative travel experiences. I traveled solo two other times: once to Edinburgh, Scotland to perform a dance work in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and then later to Berlin, Germany, where I spent a month as an artist in residence.

I will be writing more about these experiences in future blog posts.

As a solo woman traveler, it can be exhilarating to be in a new place and making the decisions about where to go and what to see. There are definitely challenges too! Some of them like I faced in LA- navigating the layout and public transit in a new city, safety considerations as a women, etc. But if you are traveling internationally, there can be even more! Language, cultural and currency differences, are just the start. Thankfully there are also more resources available to help- map, translate, public transportation and other apps to make navigating a new city a little easier.

If you have been considering a transformative travel experience, solo or not, but some of your concerns or fears have kept you from moving forward, reach out to me at angela@hdwellnessandtravel. I would be happy to chat with you more!

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