Do you ever have those moments of clarity where you realize right now, right where you are, at this moment in time is where you should be and what you should be doing, without really having any knowledge as to why this is what you should be doing or what purpose it really has in your life for the long term? At that precise moment, you realize that this is where you should be and this is what you should be doing, because it is a brief moment of pure bliss that isn’t really explainable.
This happened to me on a recent solo trip to Turkey. I was in a neighborhood called Karakoy on the European side of Istanbul. I was with two locals and a woman I had met a few months back online through the Solo Travel Society Facebook page, after having posted that I’d be solo for two weeks in Turkey and looking for advice on what to do and see while there. As luck would have it, Gigi was scheduled to be in Istanbul the same time I was, so we chose to meet up for a full day of exploration of both the European and Asian sides of Istanbul. Gigi is a popular German travel blogger, and through her photography had met another local Turkish photographer prior to our meeting in Karakoy. This random sequence of events was how I came to be sipping coffee with three new friends from all over the world on a cute little hidden street lined with restaurants and cafes in Karakoy.
As I sat there with three people I had just met that day, it hit me. This is what I enjoy doing and there is nothing else I’d rather be doing at this moment. I felt that unexpected moment of pure bliss and of being exponentially happy, for a reason quite inexplicable. I wasn’t there with a significant other, in fact, I don’t even have a significant other. I didn’t just hit the lotto. I didn’t just get a raise at work. I was a woman traveling by myself in a Middle Eastern country, completely out of my comfort zone. But without leaving my comfort zone, I wouldn’t have experienced this moment. I made this happen; I met these people from all over the world and learned so much just from this brief interaction. I did this. And this was right where I should be.
I choose to travel solo to be more likely to do just what I was doing at that moment – to meet new people and gain new experiences that likely wouldn’t have occurred if I was traveling with someone. Because you already have companionship traveling with someone, you are less likely to reach out to strangers. Traveling solo forces you to meet new people and learn new things about cultures different than your own. Times of uncertainty and confusion force you to rely on the good in others. I believe that most people are inherently good. While this is definitely not true of everyone, you learn to trust your instincts and avoid the people who are not. You become more self reliant but yet reliant on others at the same time. Quite the paradox.
At that moment, I was sipping a coffee and learning new things from new people from all over the world in one of the most amazing cities in the world. I couldn’t think of something I’d rather be doing at that moment in time. I was present. And present is the best place to be.
*Cover photo taken at Salinas Grandes in Jujuy, Argentina in January 2015.