The Art of Traveling Alone

The Art of Traveling Alone

A simple recipe for self-discovery and adventure: a few parts courage, a dash of social skills, a pinch of good luck and an open ended ticket. Be sure to sift out the fear – why not make it a double dose of courage? Add in the overwhelming desire to see new things. Don’t forget your mental first aid kit, or your physical one for that matter. No one can prepare you for what you’re about to experience so hold on tight, or let go if you so choose, and step forward.

Three months turned into two months turned into one month turned into done.

Nothing I could say in this blogpost could convey what I have experienced over the last few months; I have pushed my self to extremes mentally and physically, I have walked among strangers and lived out of a backpack, I have lived for the small moments and collected the big ones. I can only describe the last three months as the greatest months of my life. I am returning to the real world with a plethora of stories, like the time I went deaf on one side and the doctor told me he didn’t have the tool to look in my ear or when I ran up 140 flights of stairs before dawn to be the first person in Machu Picchu. But more importantly, I am returning with knowledge of myself; I am a fun fact enthusiast, an active thinker, a pancake artist, an avid swimmer, a lover of all things unknown - I am Amelia Tjaden. Looking back at who I was when I trotted onto the first bus of many and comparing that person to the author of this blogpost, I see two different people. The first being an overly extroverted individual wrapped up in the concerns of the world and of herself; the second more relaxed and introverted, with a love for herself that no one could ever take away.

I wish my words would take you, dear reader, on the journey I have just returned from – I wish I could make you understand what it felt like to ride a bike through the driest desert on the planet or spend an evening with a Quechua family on an Island in Lake Titcaca - but to truly understand what I have experienced you would have needed to be present during the highs, the lows, and the moments spent in utter solitude.

I am excited to see where I am taken as I leave my dreamlike state and enter into the real world. I can only hope that my clarity persists and that the world is kind to me.

Mendoza, here I come.