Many of my travels are starting to be solo travels. Not that I choose for them to be, but it just happens. I do not have a husband or boyfriend and the majority of my friends have jobs that don’t allow them to pick up and leave whenever they want. Since I have been in this situation for so long, I have learned that if I want to go anywhere, I cannot wait on people. I have to just go.
Now when I tell people I travel by myself, the majority of people tell me, “Oh that’s amazing you aren’t scared to go by yourself.” Or “How brave of you that you don’t worry about traveling alone.” Truth is, I DO get scared and nervous and have slight anxiety attacks about traveling alone. As I am typing this, I am having major heart palpitations because my trip to South America is coming up and that is a solo trip. My cousin was supposed to go with me, but she ended up getting a job and had to back out. I had already paid for the trip. I have wanted to go to South America for YEARS, especially Brazil, and we have an amazing trip planned. So, I decided to suck it up and go by myself. I have tours set up each day, have a guide who is supposed to speak English (fingers crossed that happens) and rides to and from the airports. I have watched enough Dateline and Criminal Minds to know of everything that could go wrong. However, there are so many things that could go RIGHT!
This happens all the time in life. People tend to not take a risk because they are too focused on what could go wrong and not focused on what could go right. I’ll be honest. I. AM. NERVOUS. But if I let that fear keep me from going, I will not get to experience life like I want to. It is also interesting to see how when life MAKES you do something, you just figure out how to do it. I am pretty sure I would not have planned a solo trip like this. But now, I am forcing myself to face one of my fears head on and check off another item off the bucket list in the same trip :)
**Follow me on Instagram @jodithegypsy to keep up with my trip to Iguazú Falls, Rio de Jeneiro and the Amazon.
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