My First Time Solo Traveling

I love anything and everything that has to do with travel. I always knew this growing up. When my third year of college rolled around, there was one relentless thought that poked at my brain—it was me telling myself that as soon as graduation was over, this would be my chance to pack my bags and go for it. I knew that after graduation, I didn’t have any commitments to anything, really. With money saved up and lots of (soon-to-be) time on my hands, there seriously was no excuse for me not to travel.

My heart was set on going to Japan (you know when you get that gut feeling about something, and you don’t really have a clear explanation as to why you feel the way that you do, other than the fact that it just feels right? Yeah, going to Japan was this for me). The plan was this: book plane tickets, find a place to stay for about 2-3 months, graduate, pack my bags and dip within my first month of postgrad.

And then…COVID happened. So, there was a change of plans now that international travel was temporarily out of the picture. The islands of Hawai’i hold a special place in my heart—I grew up traveling there a lot and I figured that the familiarity of it would provide a baseline of comfort for me (plus, I had family there for worst-case-scenarios, haha), so I decided to go to O’ahu. My intentions for this trip were to spend time with myself and seek discomfort in ways I never have before. Planning didn’t require much; I bought my plane tickets to O’ahu, booked a hostel for my stay, graduated in March of 2021, and hopped on the plane on May 3, 2021. To put this all in simpler terms, this was the best decision of my entire life.

Me, in this expensive ass stole I bought as additional proof that I did indeed, graduate.

I had never stayed in a hostel prior to my solo trip. You could probably guess that my anxiety was through the roof, but I knew this was the best way to push myself to meet new people on my own. Needless to say, staying in a hostel made it ridiculously easy to meet new people. Everyone I met was here for the same reasons I was, and 99% of the people I met also came alone.

My first day there, literally moments after I checked-in, I sat in a room right by the front desk, trying to figure out what to do first. Three people walked in, coming back from the beach, and it was evident they had been here for a while. One of them walked in and sat down.

"Hey, did you just get here today?”

Even. ‘Til. This. Day…I’m so thankful this random dude approached me first. He asked me what my name was, and then invited me to go down to the beach with his two friends. His name was Joe, and his two friends were Rory and Ally. I spent my entire first day with them. All three of them were coincidentally from New York, and they all came alone and met at the hostel (talk about small world). If you saw their dynamic with one another, you’d think they had known each other for years. They even had plans to island hop to Mau’i after O’ahu and were kind enough to ask me to come along. This is another thing I love about them—they are such free-spirited souls, their only concerns in that moment were trying to change their flights in order to travel with one another.

Taken by me, on my first day in O’ahu

While meeting people was the goal, spending time alone was still something I wanted to do. I had so much time to myself to indulge in my book, the warm sand, the ocean, good food, sleeping under the sun, meditation, practice of breathwork, etc. This trip truly taught me to cherish my independence.

I eventually met Ellen. She was quite literally a ball of talkative sunshine. I remember meeting her like it was yesterday. She was wearing these black flared leggings and I complimented her on them, telling her I’ve been wanting a pair like that for a while. I learned that Ellen is from Sweden, but she had been living in Seattle for the past year and loved it there. Her plan was to move back home after this trip, and her family had no idea she was coming back to Sweden to surprise them. I spent the rest of my days with Ellen asking her 101 questions about her, her life, and how to say certain words or phrases in Swedish.

I also met Caroline. The three of us were staying in the same room. Caroline is from Brazil, and she lives in Texas. She’s shy, but it was so easy to warm up to her. Not to mention, she also had the cutest laugh and smile. Caroline is truly one of the sweetest people I have ever met. I just about cried when we grew comfortable to open up to each other—social anxiety can be a bitch (excuse my language). Oh! And she’s vegan! Caroline, Ellen, and I pretty much became a little trio for the next few days—they made me feel so at home.

I spent my entire Thursday exploring North Shore with Ellen, Caroline, and a bunch of people from the hostel. From swimming + shell digging at Pipeline, to a poke lunch at the tide pools, to laughing out of nervousness while simultaneously cheering each other on to jump off the rocks in Waimea, we had an extremely eventful day meeting others and enjoying mother nature to the fullest.

Evening rolled around and this was the night that I will remember for the rest of my life. We got cleaned up after our long day and we figured it’d be perfect to have wine night. The three of us walked to the nearest ABC Store and after we each picked up our own bottles of wine (because apparently one wasn’t enough to go around) and an extra because one was buy-one-get-one-free, we stood at the exit as rain was pouring outside.

We looked at the rain, looked at each other, and back at the rain. We decided to wait it out for a minute or two…but it got heavier. We ended up running back, pretty much taking a second shower on our way back to our room.

Wine night doubled from three people to six. I want to say, “As we sipped our wine…” but honestly…we most definitely did not sip this wine. As we chugged our wine, we found ourselves chatting for hours as it poured outside.

During all of this, I got to meet Malika, Natalia, and Juliette. Malika’s from Uzbekistan, and she lives in Los Angeles. Some mornings I’d wake up and I’d find her doing remote work on her laptop in the common area. She is incredibly sweet and a very active person—volleyball, hiking (she did Stairway to Heaven on the island), surfing…you name it. Natalia is from Colombia, and she she lives in San Francisco. You could tell in the way that she spoke, that she holds a heart made of gold. She is so passionate about life and travel, she literally oozed love and inspiration. Juliette had arrived at the hostel right in the middle of our wine night. She’s from Quebec, and let me tell you…this cutie knows how to have a good time. Juliette is so carefree and not to mention, she also has the most beautiful French accent ever.

As the wine drunk was settling in and the rain outside had stopped, we came up with the idea to meet someone we knew, 11 P.M. at night in the middle of Waikiki for a midnight swim. I cannot reveal too much about this “someone” but I’d like to make note that this “someone” thought they were only meeting two people at the beach…

We pulled up in a group of six girls, and this “someone” had no idea. I remember that some of the girls were done swimming/sitting on the beach chatting away in their own world, and it was just me, Ellen, and Juliette in the water. We skinny-dipped and laughed like crazy. Being openly naked with my girl friends in this special moment—in the middle of Waikiki—was one of the most liberating experiences I have ever had.

I shared one of my most favorite conversations with Natalia on the beach that night. I opened up to her about why I came to O’ahu alone and expressed my overwhelming emotions around the fact that everything felt as though they were falling into the right places—that for once, I genuinely believed I was so deserving of these moments, these experiences, and these emotions that were surrounding me. Natalia was so proud of me and so proud of who I am. She motivated me to continue doing trips like this for myself, and she told me she could feel that my heart and soul meant well. I don’t know how…but this woman that I literally met just a few hours ago, had me BALLING my eyes out on the beach under the moonlight. I felt an overwhelming amount of love in that very moment.

Caroline’s last night in O’ahu. She bought the three of us matching starfish earrings.

It was so hard to say goodbye. As my trip came to an end, I cried some more. I didn’t want to go home. Not one bit. I couldn’t bear the idea of not knowing when/if I would see these souls again. I don’t do well with goodbyes because of this exact reason. I will never be able to put into words how lucky I feel to have crossed paths with everyone on this trip—even lucky is an understatement. On Caroline’s last night in O’ahu, Caroline and Ellen taught me two words in both their languages that encompass the feeling of missing someone. These two words are my exact emotions right now as I write this. I absolutely cannot wait for the time we are all able to meet again. Hopefully it can be us six + more beautiful people we meet along the way.

I know this blog post is long, but don’t worry, my upcoming posts won’t be as long as this. This specific one just holds a special place in my heart…it was a bit difficult to condense. If you’ve made it this far, thank you.