When I started traveling, I made the same goal as many other people do, to visit all 7 continents. While this is one of the most popular bucket list items for travelers and non-travelers, many people don’t achieve it. Knowing this, I gave myself a deadline – of 10 years. At 20, my goal was to do it by 30. If you take out duplicates, I actually did it in 6 years- studying abroad in China in 2011 (my only time to Asia) and Antarctica in 2017. You learn a lot from traveling, so here are my top 11 things I learned from achieving this goal.
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1. Patience is a necessity, not a virtue.
Traveling brings out the worst in people. If you can’t handle waiting in line, or dealing with crowds, or things going wrong, then you’re not going to have a good time. You need to learn how to wait. Everyone in line is in the same boat as you, so being mad doesn’t help anyone. To make sure your entire trip isn’t ruined, learn to have some patience.
2. Travel is glamorous only in hindsight.
Recycled air, waiting, sketchy motels, sweating, long days, sore feet. These are things people who travel don’t tell you, and honestly, who wants to hear about the shower that was so small I had to shave my legs on the sink? But in hindsight, you only remember the laughs, the food, and the experience.
3. Everyone, literally everyone, is interesting.
Solo travel can be intimidating, but trust me, every person who you come in contact with has a life that’s as complicated and interesting as yours. Especially if you meet someone on a plane, instant conversation starter is why they’re going where they are. Trust me, you’ll meet some very interesting people, and possibly a new BFF.
4. Dance is more important than the spoken word.
I’ve been places where there is a complete language barrier, I only know a few phrases, and they don’t know any English. We communicate through hand gestures, food, and most importantly dance. I’ve danced almost everywhere I’ve been to (to the embarrassment of my husband).
5. Do everything you can.
You never know when you’ll be back, if at all, so do what you can. Even if it scares you, even if it’s expensive, and especially if you’re uncomfortable. My perspective is that I’ve saved up for this trip so why bother thinking about the cost of something?
6. If you’re not uncomfortable, you’re not doing it right.
Traveling isn’t meant to be doing the same thing that you do at home. Step out of your comfort zone. Eat the weird food, dance the dance even if you have no idea how.
7. Your hair won’t look good.
Maybe this is just me. But I never look like the perfect Instagram person. Curly, thick, frizzy hair. And bangs. I’m not really sure what I was thinking about the bangs. But I have bought a portable straightener (yes battery powered) so at least I feel more comfortable. But once I accepted that I’m not looking model-esque, I felt a lot better about my pictures. Not worth being miserable just to look pretty.
8. Being a young adult and traveling is uncommon.
For most of my traveling, I was in that middle ground of not-young-enough to backpack through Europe after high school, but not-old-enough to travel when retired. So that was unusual. A LOT of people said to me “travel while your young” or “I wish I traveled when I was your age.” This only reiterated that I was doing the right thing.
9. Take only photographs, leave only footprints.
I can’t stress this enough. Tourism is great for the economy, but terrible, and I mean TERRIBLE for nature. So don’t take shells or sand or animals, or leaves, or anything. Take photos. Take videos.
10. Collect something, anything.
I collect mugs. I remember 95% of the stories about how I got my mugs. Each mug brings me back to the trip that I got it on. It’s easy to forget sometimes, so collecting something always gives me that souvenir I have to have, that unique mug that describes the place or vacation. It’s a great memento to look back on.
11. Remember how you feel.
You will not remember every place you travel to. However, there will be moments where your feelings will be overwhelming. While you can look at photos and remember places, you can’t usually get the feelings back.
12. Keep traveling.
Yes, this was a major goal for me and a lot of people ask “what’s next?” I don’t want to travel to every country in the world just to say I did, so I don’t have a goal like this one, but I just want to keep going. Keep traveling, keep experiencing, keep eating, and keep dancing.
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