Her Away from Home

Why travel alone? I get know myself. I’m the type of person that can’t go anywhere without music. Even in my short 3-block walk to work I plug in my headphones and enjoy 1.5 songs. I love alone time, but do you know how many thoughts cross through your mind every minute? 35-48 to be exact!

In a recent solo trip to Chile I didn’t have the audible luxury of headphones. Alanis Morissette could have written a song about the irony of losing my headphones on the first leg of my trip. Delta was kind enough to provide headphones to watch movies, but the latest iPhone doesn’t take basic headphone jacks anymore, so no more music upon landing. I decided I would buy bluetooth ear buds or an adapter during my next layover. Not so lucky for me, immigration was backed up and I barely had time to use the facilities without missing my flight, let alone buy headphones.

So there I found myself. Stuck with my own thoughts. I struck up a few conversations here and there, but let’s just say my Spanish isn’t great, and pointing out animals or counting to 10 isn’t very fun for the other person.  Without the crutch of music, I had a lot of conversations with myself and I realized there was a lot we needed to discuss.

That said, with all of the time getting know myself, I also got to know lots of other people. It’s true that people are more likely to talk with you if you are alone. I met a lot of people who are different from me– and I met a lot of people who I assumed were different but in the end were not.

Oh, and let’s not forget the other benefit of traveling alone…I get to do what I want and on my time 😉