What traveling does to your confidence!

Maybe growth and confidence aren't in books but in a boarding pass!

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I’m writing this blog from a sun-warmed café in Oaxaca, Mexico. The last day of a five-day solo trip. A trip I booked with excitement and absolutely no idea what I was walking into.

I had a few details: a list of places we would visit and some rough timings. But beyond that? It was all a question mark.

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Who would I be traveling with?

What would transportation look like?

What would the food be like?

Would I have enough cash?

What if the weather changed everything?

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But somewhere deep inside me, a little voice said, Trust it. Trust yourself. And I decided to roll the dice. And now that I look back, with this last golden sunset of my trip, I realize something.

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Travel doesn’t just change how you see the world.

It changes how you see yourself.

‌When they asked if I wanted a private room or a shared one, I chose shared, knowing it would be a good challenge to my comfort zone. Where else would I get the chance to share a hotel room with a total stranger? It turned out to be one of the best decisions I made.

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She and I couldn’t have been more different; opposites in every way. But connections don’t care about resumes or routines. It cares about curiosity, kindness, and a willingness to learn about each other; to see humanity through someone else's eyes.

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And so, every evening was a new discovery, learning, listening, and laughing with someone who, just days ago, was a complete stranger. I surprised myself in other ways. I ate a grasshopper (yes, you read that right). Not just once, but several times. What a rollercoaster that was.

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But growth isn’t just about saying yes. It’s also about saying no. One day, when I felt exhausted, I chose not to join an experience everyone else was excited about. I listened to my body instead of my FOMO. And for me, that was an even bigger act of self-trust than all the adventurous yeses.

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I always knew travel opened your eyes to new cultures, foods, and landscapes. What I didn’t realize was how profoundly it opens your eyes to yourself. When I travel with family, micro-decisions are made together. Safety nets are built-in. But when you travel solo, it’s just you; navigating new streets, people, and feelings.

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Every choice is yours. Every emotion is yours. Every stumble and every small victory; yours. Solo travel is a mirror. It reflects not just who you are, but who you are becoming. It demands flexibility, courage, and compassion, especially toward yourself. It asks you to trust your instincts, make peace with discomfort, and find belonging not in places, but within yourself.

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I found new parts of me, brave parts, playful parts, tender parts, that I didn’t even know were there. And that’s the real magic of travel. It doesn’t just broaden your horizons. It brings you home, to a fuller, freer version of you.

‌If you're sitting there wondering if you should book the ticket, share the room, try the strange food, or trust the unfamiliar road, this is your sign. Say yes. Because somewhere out there, maybe across an ocean, or maybe just across a fear, there's a version of you waiting to be found.

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Here are a few answers I'd love from you:

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• What fears would you love to leave behind on your next trip?

• Where is your intuition nudging you to go?

• What parts of yourself are you ready to meet?

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Let’s keep exploring.

Not just the world, but the worlds within us.