A Journal Entry About Purposeful Travel And Community Building

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Written on March 26, 2024. 1:23PM CST

I am writing this on a flight attendant layover in Dallas,TX. I arrived here pretty late last night, and while I was getting ready for sleep, at around 2am, I was staring at my phone for awhile. Scrolling throng social media, as most of us do before bed. I learned that the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore had just collapsed after a malfunctioning cargo ship crashed into it. There were a few cars driving through that bridge at the time plus workers making improvements on the bridge. In a matter of seconds the bridge, and everyone on it, went down into the water. Such a horrific thought, that at any given moment everything can be over.

Tragic events happen every day, of course, but this one happened today. This one is triggering my thoughts as I have been striving to make changes in my life to be a better person and make a positive impact on others around me. I don’t want my own bridge to collapse and not have changed someone’s life for the better in some way. So today I sit on a patch of grass, staring at a lake and cute squirrels and I ponder how my personal skills and passions could be honed towards something useful for me and others.

I’m passionate about travel, as many of us are, but more specifically about solo travel and the ways it can positively change you. After going through a life changing break up some years ago, solo travel was one of the things that helped me find my confidence as a single woman in her thirties. The more trips I took, the more I connected with the vastness of this world and the people in it. Learning about our differences and similarities.

I learned that, although building community within those around you in our own neighborhoods and communities is extremely important, the whole world can be your community as well. Just by visiting far off lands and interacting with locals and other travelers, you can have an effect in their own lives as well them in yours. The lessons learned abroad can be brought home and implemented in a way than can impact our daily problem solving skills. It can help us have a broader perspective when it comes to our day to day problems and the solutions we can find for them.

Yes. I love sipping margaritas by the beach (and there are times when this is necessary) but my kind of solo travel is about more than just relaxing somewhere nice and forgetting all my troubles. It’s about connecting with the rest of the world and learning about other’s troubles and solutions as well. Its about taking what I learn back home with me.

Visiting a women’s textiles coop in Atitlán, Guatemala.

My new purpose for future trips is meeting more local women in the locations I get to visit. Women who might be changing their own communities with entrepreneurial endeavors, businesses, non-profits. Those who are helping the ones that might need an extra push to succeed in their own fields, and in turn continue to help even more people. It’s a chain reaction. My purpose will be to learn and find ways to implement what I learn into my own endeavors from this way forward.

Solo travel gives me the ability travel slowly and without the need to satisfy others who could be traveling with me. This way I can really engage with my surroundings. I want to keep exploring these topics and find ways to implement them into my travel advisor career. Focusing on women owned accommodations, tours, experiences where female travelers can engage more deeply in the communities they visit.

Before I wrap it up, I want to ask you the following questions:

Do you enjoy solo travel?
What are your main goals and purposes when you plan and
take trips?
Do you find purposeful, slow travel appealing?
Besides relaxing during a vacation, do you enjoy learning about the communities you visit and having social interactions with locals?

Let me know in the comments bellow and help me carve my path. Maybe in the future, we can use these common interests to build a community of like minded women. We can maybe even take a trip together someday! Let’s find a common purpose!