Travel alone
Reflections on visiting places old and new
In April 2019, a friend encouraged me to travel more. He was suggesting international travel. I thought that idea was nuts. At the time, I was inexperienced in traveling domestically and rarely visited new cities, and I had never gone somewhere I didn’t know anyone. I decided that to take his advice I had to do it in baby steps to expose myself to the life of a jetsetter.
In the summer of 2019, I began making quick trips away from my home base in Jackson, Mississippi. Atlanta, New Orleans, Birmingham, and Nashville were all places I have been before, but I chose them because I wanted to figure out what all I really need in order to make the most of a getaway. Turns out, not much! I like having plenty of clothes to choose from, keeping toiletries is an obvious necessity, and I can entertain myself well enough with books and podcasts.
The next hurdle was getting myself used to traveling by plane. I love flying, just like I love rollercoasters and jumping from rocks into deep water. I’ve even jumped out of a perfectly good plane before, just for the thrill. What I wasn’t as accustomed to was the process of shopping for flights, booking an airline, and the security screening policies for boarding a plane. In October, I flew to Austin, Texas. It was on this trip I realized that the general rule of “1…
