Limitless
Written by: Tulsi Patel
The thing I love most about traveling is you can’t take the same trip twice. Do you take a family trip to the same destination every year around the same time? I bet they all stand out with their own memories for their own reasons. Did you and a friend visit the same city one week apart? You definitely came back with different stories.
Growing up I always thought of traveling as a communal activity with either family or groups where you go to cities or regions with specific tourist destinations in each spot. As I began to shift to traveling with friends after college, I began to experience nuances and “hidden gems”. I began to acquire stories from the most random moments and found the unexpected destinations to be the most phenomenal. When I turned 30, I went on my first solo trip. The tides changed and my world was opened in a way where there’s no turning back.
The first thing to know about me is that I suck at planning. Unclear if I’m bad at it or just despise it immensely, but either way it doesn’t happen... or if it occurs you can expect a poor, sporadic manner to it. Toss that in with a solo trip with me, myself, and I, and you get chaos. And magic.
I spent a week road tripping in Ireland without a single night’s stay planned out. Meaning I researched places to visit and my driving route, however decided where I would stay the evening of. Little did I realize how extensive the entire endeavor was with a stick-shift rental car on the left side of the road. I quickly found myself squealing as I was whirling clockwise around a round-about. Oh and I didn’t have service nor data- only relied on wifi if and when I found it.
Let me tell you, that was the most phenomenal trip of my life. As the one who generally complains throughout a 6-mile hike with friends, I ended up hiking 12+ miles a day. On my own. By choice. I took in sights that made me weep and skip lunch (that may or may not be mutually exclusive). I met the kindest locals who partially assisted in my getting lost as well as got me back on track. I drove further north than I intended along the most narrow and winding roads which led to hidden empty viewpoints. I climbed an unmarked mountainside that was so steep I wouldn’t have skied down it, thus felt so terrified I forgot to take any pictures. Why you ask? Because it led to Ireland’s lesser-known tallest cliffs, and I had no idea I would be the only living creature making the trek that evening. Perhaps it wasn’t Ireland, but rather that hike which single-handedly changed my life trajectory… nah. It was the trip.
That trip taught me to trust myself. Maybe not exactly during the cliff hike of doom but for the entire rest of the week where I didn’t have any idea what I was doing, yet gifted myself with the most irreplaceable adventures to date. Call it cliché, or even conclude after the above description that I should never trust myself again… But I am endlessly thankful I didn’t bail on the trip after realizing I wouldn’t have any adventure-pals joining. If there’s something you want to do but the people around you can’t find the time, or maybe you’re a little nervous to go on your own- go anyway. Trust your limits. Or at least trust that you’ll learn them. Better yet, learn that you’re limitless.