Explore the Colourful World
A Wonderful Gift
The Road, The Sky, and Me: A Traveler's Reflections on Life
There is a version of myself that only exists on the road. She wakes up with the sunrise in a different bed every week, speaks in broken phrases with her hands, and collects memories instead of things. She is more patient, more curious, more alive. Travel didn’t just show me the world—it showed me who I could become.
Learning to Let Go
I used to be the kind of person who planned everything. Color-coded calendars, backup plans for my backup plans, and a carefully mapped-out future. Then I missed a train in a small town in Italy, and everything changed.
Standing on that empty platform, watching my carefully scheduled day disappear into the distance, something unexpected happened. I didn’t panic. I bought a coffee from a tiny shop, sat on a bench, and watched the town wake up. An elderly woman smiled at me. A cat curled up near my feet. The morning light turned everything golden.
That missed train taught me something no guidebook could: some of life’s best moments aren’t planned—they’re stumbled upon. Since then, I’ve learned to leave in my itinerary and space in my heart for the unexpected.
The Kindness of Strangers
When you travel alone as a woman, people often ask: “Aren’t you scared?” The truth is, I’ve found more kindness than danger on the road.
There was the shopkeeper in Morocco who walked me twenty minutes to my riad because my phone had died. The family in Thailand who invited me to their dinner table when they saw me eating alone. The stranger on a train who shared his umbrella and his stories during a sudden storm.
These moments taught me that humanity’s default setting is kindness. We’re trained to fear difference, but travel strips that away. When you can’t communicate with words, you learn to communicate with smiles. When you’re lost, someone always helps you find your way.
