14 Reasons Why You Should Spend a Month Traveling Solo as Soon as You Get out of College

We millennial are notorious for changing things that needn’t be changed, for doing things in opposing ways from that of our parent generation. Travelling is one such example. All of us were introduced to tourism in a similar way- a family trip to a popular location where you will be corralled like herds of sheep, take food and water break, pose in front of buildings with fake smiles, and come home so you could boast about it to your friends at school. And hence, for the better part of our lives, travelling and tourism were synonymous terms. But then entered Bollywood, with its coming of age movies, where the focus was on the character and their life-altering journey. Somewhere between Dil Chahta Hai and Tamasha, we learned that Travelling isn’t the same thing as Tourism, in fact, they are wildly opposing concepts.

A Major part of Traveling is solo travel. If we millenials know one thing, it is the importance of “self”: self-care, self-love, self-journey, self-development and so on. Unless you are content with “self”, you cannot be a productive part of a community. So here are 14 reasons why solo travelling is something you must do as soon as you can-

1 - The younger, the better.

Before I list the reasons why, I think I better start with when. The best time for your first solo trip would be ideally as soon as you finish college. You are a fresh new adult, with open views and some spare time. It might even help you to figure out things like what you want to do after college, or in your life! So start saving up while you’re still in college!

2 - When you travel solo, you start to observe the minutest details about you.

When you do everything with a group of people, friends or family, there are things about you that stay hidden even from yourself. For me, I realized I wasn’t really a introvert as I had believed myself to be all my life.

3 - You start to realize what truly matters in your life.

You may have enjoyed that party with your friends when you went to Goa, but they did not want to bungee jump or go snorkeling, so you never went either. But what if that is the most important or adventurous thing that you would ever done in your life? What if that one experience makes you realize that a dare devil lives inside of you? Or the complete opposite may be true, that all you may want to do is watch a perfect sunset but cannot have a moment all by yourself?

4 - A time for reveries

This point may be repeated multiple times in this article, but this is the most important part of a solo trip: self-discovery. After you are done with your activities for the day, you have the rest of the time all to yourself. For me, such trips often end up being the ones where I just think about my past and the future, the dreams that I used to hold dear or the person that I am today.

5 - You start to value experience more than money.

A solo trip helps you realize that travelling is not simply about living in the best hotels and buying the best things. It is about what you see, how you feel, where you go and how well you explore the place. It’s the memories that will last you a lifetime, not the trinkets and souvenirs.

6 - You will gain a fresh perspective about success.

Often we gauge the amount of success a person has with the amount of money they earn. But when you travel alone, and meet new people and see new lifestyles, you realize how success isn’t about money. You will start to measure success in terms of experience, humility, and humanity.

7 - You will learn the true value of money.

While money is necessary, figuring out what you would want to spend that money on is more helpful to achieve your goals, this is another aspect of success that solo travelling will help you understand.

Money is a volatile substance. You can either use it as fuel to power your dreams and goals, or let it all burn by itself. When you are travelling aone, you learn to spend money only on important things with a valid cause, this is a life lesson that will help you manage your finances in a way that you don’t spend unnecessarily. for instance, when you pay for a class that will gain you skill (diving, local cooking, etc) that money is well utilised compared to simply buying things you don’t need.

8 - You will learn to manage your finances better.

When you are travelling alone, you are responsible for all of your financial decisions. Sometimes, we tend to spend more when travelling with others because of peer pressure. Or sometimes our friends handle the finances and we never learn how to be responsible for oneself. In the longer run, you learn more about how to spend your money wisely and save more.

9 - You get to meet other Khiske Bande like you.

You will hear stories from these new khiske bande that you meet, some funny, some adventurous, some sad and some depressing but all will have the same end result- you will gain more experience through their experiences. And trust me when I say this, some of these stories will inspire you to make some major life-changing decisions in your life!

10 - You start valuing fitness.

When we are young, we think we are invincible. But travelling makes you realize the reality of your health. When you plan a trek and find yourself huffing and puffing after climbing one small hill, you realize that are not so invincible after all (I speak this from personal experience, please don’t laugh at me.)

11 - You learn to be grateful and grounded.

Seeing people around you being more cheerful than you, despite having much less, makes you realize that the iPhone X might not be that necessary after all. When you travel, and explore the local cultures and engage with the people, you learn more about hardships and struggles and happiness better than any book could teach you.

12 - You learn self dependence.

When you’re out and about with friends or family, you really don’t have much to worry about as there is always someone to look after you. But when you’re travelling alone, you are responsible for your money, shelter, activities, and feeding yourself timely. If you’re someone who has never lived alone before, it is harder but even more important that you do this at least once. You learn how to be happy and content by yourself, without anyone’s help, and that is something we all must know in this fickle world.

13 - Self-discovery

You never know, you might have been all the three Dil Chahta Hai kids in one person, just waiting to be unleashed, but you never gave yourself a chance. Solo travelling is the best path towards the journey of self-discovery. You are urged to explore your inner-self. You learn to adapt, you learn to be resourceful, you learn to be happy.

14 - You will get the time to think about what a perfect day in your life would be.

It is a part of self-discovery. Imagine the best 24 hours of life, now consider all the variables that made it be so. Once you have a clear view, you can work more energetically towards your goal. What steps must be taken to reach that point in life where you would consider it to be perfect, and there’s no place better for such in-depth contemplation than a solo trip.

I have given my reasons, you can add more of yours, but the bottom line remains, you must try to travel alone at least once in your life. It will be your most precious memory, your biggest adventure, or if nothing else, the experience of a lifetime!

This is how my travels after college looked like -