And we come at last to the end of the alphabet! I always regret these A-Zs as I get to the difficult letters, the last six or so and this one is no exception. It’s been a year since I had this idea while walking around Frankfurt. I filled in about two-thirds of the letters while I was in Germany and most of the others have gone in long before publication day but Z has been a problem up until about a week ago. Z for what?? Zurich? Zigzags? Zoos? But I’m going to finish on Z for Zeal because solo female travellers – and potential solo female travellers who are doing their research prior to becoming one – are people with zeal, with zest for life, people who are going to get out there and do the thing they want to, even if they can’t do it in the way that might be expected of them.
What am I defining as “zeal”? Excitement, enthusiasm, a carpe diem, seize the day, mindset. People who are going to go out and do the thing despite – or something because of – adversities. How many of us started travelling solo because there was no one around who wanted to join us when we started? I know what the internet’s like so I’m going to add that “zeal” does not mean “rich” or “privileged” (although there is a bit of that involved in being able to travel regularly). Trips can be done on a budget and you’re still a solo female traveller if you’ve done a short one-off trip that’s taken twenty years to save for. Not all solo travellers are going off around the world and certainly not all of them are going twenty times a year. There are plenty of ways to keep costs down but equally, maybe you want to blow your entire bank account on a once-in-a-lifetime experience and those are both fine. That’s a detour. Zeal. Zest. Embracing what life has to offer. Finding your own adventure. Finding your own path. Finding who you really are.
Ohhh… we all hate the cliche of gap year-ers going off to Thailand to “find themselves” and coming back drawling about yoga while wearing elephant trousers. But you can find out who you are through travel, and I’m not talking about the fake spirituality. I’ve talked about it before. You’re already full of life and excitement and hope and expectation. And when you come back from the trip, you’ll be full of experience and self-confidence and resilience and problem-solving skills. I’m definitely not the same person who went off to Switzerland in October 2005. (Then again, that was 18 years ago. I wouldn’t be the same person anyway; I’d just turned twenty then and still had two years at uni. That was nearly half my lifetime ago now.)
I’m inclined to be dismissive of women who think travelling solo is something special or unique. Well, not dismissive exactly. I’m just not a fan of “I’m not like other girls”. I follow a lot of travel creators on various social media and the solo female variety outnumbers the solo male variety hugely. It’s harder to tell whether this pattern continues in real life or if it’s just that talking about their adventures online is something that appeals more to women than to men. I did an entire post on people to follow if you’re after some solo female travel inspiration. We all travel in different ways but we have two things in common. The first is that we’re not “not like other girls” and the second is we have zeal. None of us are approaching travel like a boring 9-5 job we have no choice but to go to, even the people who are making their living from their travels. We’re treating our travels and adventures like – well, adventures. We’re perpetually excited, we’re always learning, seeing new places, trying new things, meeting new people. We know that we’re gaining in life skills and confidence and resilience and most importantly, we’re not gatekeeping it. We love seeing new people try out travelling, especially solo, we love seeing people gain those skills and experiences, we love passing on our knowledge and our experiences and our favourite places and foods and we love to see the people we’ve helped help the next generation.
That’s you. You, the person reading this series, the person who wants to travel but just needs a bit of advice and inspiration and encouragement. The fact that you’re thinking about it means that you’re already that sort of person. Do you think you’re a bit shy and quiet and mousy, an imposter, no good at adulting? Nope. Sorry to break it to you. You’re brave and brilliant and your confidence is going to flourish. You’ll probably still think all those things about yourself because the internet is really good at telling people we all think we’re terrible and useless and we’re really good at believing it but don’t believe everything you read on the internet! Believe me (shh, definitely not reading this on the internet). You’re capable and competent. You’re excited and enthusiastic. Look at you – you’re doing the reading and everything! Jumping in without any research is certainly a… valid choice, but it’s even better to be prepared, to know everything you can beforehand, to arm yourself with as many facts as you can, that’s great. I’m a lifelong Guide, “be prepared” is one of my mottos. But that’s not the point of this post.
This post is to celebrate your zeal, to set aside those doubts, that you’re not enough for this adventure. You absolutely are. Whether your plans are a European city break, a UK camping trip, a week-long adventure in the Arctic or a backpacking trip around the entire world, you’re the sort of person who’s excited about things and enthusiastic and you make things happen. You’re going to have a great time. And if you’re going to write about it or film it or otherwise document it online, leave me a link in the comments so I can see what you get up to!