Finding Myself through Solo Travel
I started One Woman Traveler because I am like you, a woman searching for new adventures and experiences. I’m a recovering lawyer, a former philanthropy professional, a nonprofit consultant, and a solo traveler.
Five years ago, I was fired from a job that I loved. We had a new CEO, who was 20 years younger, and she felt threatened by my experience. Although I wasn’t trying to be intimidating, but I’m pretty sure I rolled my eyes a few times in staff meetings. What can I say?
In that same year, I had partial replacements on both knees, and a two-year personal relationship ended. I wanted to run away, to fall on those newly created knees and weep. For several months, I sat on my front porch and watched the sprinkler just go back and forth, unable to engage with life. Then, I remembered that I had a kid, a mortgage, and I did not have enough money to retire.
An Obituary Worthy of the New York Times
One of my goals in life is to have an obituary worthy of a column in the New York Times. Every Sunday, I read those obituaries, those life stories of people, both famous and obscure. Like the chapters of a book, I always liked being reminded that we are not made of just the last few years of our lives, but of many layers of experiences.
So to create a new chapter in my life story, I began building a roadmap to my future by:
- Making notes about what interested me.
- Asking old friends to describe me — when I was 20, 30, 40 and even 50.
- Completing personality tests.
- Taking creative writing and painting classes.
- Reading books by Brene Brown.
- Creating my lifeline (by using a long piece of butcher paper and drawing out a line and then putting in all the significant events up to the present).
- Beginning researching my family tree and took a DNA test.
- Traveling out of town and out of the country.
Through this process, I decided that my future would be based on my passion for travel, particularly for solo travel, particularly as a woman, and particularly as a woman about to turn 60 in a tumultuous age.
I started dreaming about traveling for a living and figuring out ways I could make that happen. I became a certified tour director to lead small and large groups on organized tours. I started doing food tours in Portland, Oregon. I began exploring teaching English overseas and house-sitting for long periods of time. And, I decided to start a blog about what it’s like to solo travel when you’re a woman in the second half of life.
The Solo Woman Traveler of a Certain Age
There are many kinds of solo women travelers out here. We are:
- Single, recently divorced, or widowed
- Introverted or extroverted
- Mothers and grandmothers or child-free
- Travel experts or novices
- Use our cell phone to take and edit great photos, or are tech Luddites.
- Have a career or multiple jobs.
Our common link is what the Germans call “fernweh,” the strong desire for travel to places unknown and “torschlusspanik,” the fear that time is running out to achieve our goals.
Achieving my goals means embracing that fernweh, however it may unfold. It will probably be a combination of solo traveling, helping others learn about and experience solo traveling, and leading groups of “solo” travelers. I will define what it means, because in the end, it’s my life story.