Mountaintop
Not too long ago, my brothers and I were walking along Animal Kingdom's Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail when we met Millie and Lizelle, from Zimbabwe and Botswana, respectively. Millie first approached us after overhearing my brother recognize the iconic penguin-swarmed Boulder Beach (South Africa) in a picture hanging next to the booth she was attending as a park employee. "Have you been there?", she asked him, to which he affirmatively replied. With that unorthodox introduction followed what my brothers and I consider was a fantastic conversation and sharing of wisdom.
Initially, all they did was ask him questions. Did you do the safari tour? Where? Did you go to Cape Town? If you didn't go to Cape Town, you weren't in South Africa. Have you heard of Long Street? Did you go alone? How long were you there for? My brother couldn't keep up with them. Truth is, David went to South Africa for two months for a very specific purpose, and he knew well before going that his experience wouldn't be touristy in the way Millie and Lizelle were assuming it had been.
Millie told us she's lived in four different continents by herself, and she's spent at least a year in each, getting to know the lands and people surrounding her. "Traveling changes you, being alone changes you", she said. I got excited with her and Lizelle's stories of traveling through Africa, a continent I've longed to visit for a very long time, and kept the conversation going by adding to their somewhat philosophical train of thought. "It's like your mind and soul expand while the material aspects of your life shrink".
As someone who enjoys and has had the chance to travel alone frequently over the past few years, I can attest to the power the experience of solo travel, paired with the right attitude, has on changing your priorities in life. While I still have fun taking a guided tour every once in a while (or whenever it's safer to do so), buying knick-knacks for the people I love, and treating myself to a fancy night out, those aspects of traveling are not important to me, not anymore. What makes it to my journal are the experiences I never want to forget; names, faces, words of wisdom from strangers, observations, and feelings. Listening to these girls relive their adventures while inspiring me to do the same was the perfect example of this.
Our conversation eventually evolved to the topic of climbing mountains, since I mentioned my dream of going to Africa will soon come true when I attempt to summit Mt. Kilimanjaro. "You go girl, I admire you", Millie said as she smiled and held up her hand, signaling for a high-five as if we were life-long friends. After joking with Lizelle about how they would never do such a thing because she'd rather catch an UBER to wherever she needs to go, she added, "No, but seriously. If you just broke up with someone and you're sad, go climb a mountain. I mean, you climb that mountain and you forget you are sad. You get up and then look down and you go like 'wow, I can't believe I was sad for somebody wayyy over there!' You're up at the top of the world and you think about how millions of other people are below you, people you haven't met, experiences you haven't lived".
Everybody's different, and I don't expect everyone to start climbing mountains or spend an entire week in the wilderness. What Millie meant was that being by yourself in an unfamiliar place, wherever that is, has a unique advantage: sink or swim. It pushes you to adapt, and during that adaptation process comes unprecedented maturity that can shift your entire point of view of personal circumstances, especially ones you consider negative or limiting. It forces you to face your situation and analyze it from the inside out while looking at it through someone else's surroundings, environment, and experiences. Again, with the right attitude, you can transform not only your priorities, but your perspective on life's toughest challenges, through solo travel... and although it is possible to do it without escaping your comfort zone, it takes immense willpower, concentration, and honesty to do so. In today's fast-paced environment, 24/7 virtual connections, and the perceived immediacy of our responsibilities, intentionally disappearing, be it for a weekend, a long and well-thought out vacation, or taking additional time off, is the most effective way to seek out that transformation.
David, Daniel, and I spent about 15 minutes with Millie and Lizelle before saying good-bye and making our way to the next park activity on our schedule. We hugged and parted with each other's best wishes for our next adventures. I'll probably never see them again, but the conversation and inspiration they gifted me that day is worth sharing and thanking publicly. It is the essence of life and spirit I wish everyone experiences at least once in their life, and it is what I want SOLA to be all about. Pursuing happiness and embracing change, alone. Nothing more empowering than that.
If, while reading this, you were brought back to a special moment during your solo travels, I'd love to read more about it, so don't hesitate to send me an e-mail or reach me through Instagram or Facebook.