i’m steph, an awkward thirty-something who started traveling solo later in life because i needed a little space. a lot of space, actually. i had just jumped into a career, feeling the societal pressures to settle down, buy a house, have a kid (or three), get a dog (or three), start a garden, get a little botox… then my job brought me out of my flat southern home state and into the mountains of vermont, and for the first time in my life, i was away from the ocean and in a completely new landscape. and oh, what it did to me.
i started hiking for the first time and my science-major brain quickly became obsessed with everything ecologically profound, tiny fungi, wild flowers, big ass rocks, and of course the views; i fell hard for the outdoors. eventually, i started traveling with my partner. we’d go abroad together, but i’d peel away for a few hours to wander alone.
it wasn’t some big, brave thing, it just felt easier sometimes. easier than compromising on differing interests. easier than dragging someone up a mountain when they’d rather be curled up with a book in a centuries-old library.
and then something clicked: i realized traveling alone wasn’t as frightening as my mom told me it would be. i wasn’t robbed, or pillaged, or ransacked, or taken like liam neeson had led me (my mom) to believe. i was… great. really freaking great. so i went back to those familiar places alone. and then, at the ripe ‘ol age of 32, i started traveling solo in earnest.
Now I’m:
- planning full solo trips
- figuring things out in real time (sometimes poorly)
- navigating situations like train strikes in italy without a full breakdown (barely)
- hiking and scrambling stuff that my past self would’ve panicked over
i don’t naturally talk to strangers. i don’t walk into rooms like i belong there. i overthink things, i second-guess myself, and i still have moments where i wonder how the hell i got there.
my reason for being
most travel content doesn’t feel like it’s made for people like me.
it’s:
- confident (haha, you won’t find that here)
- socially focused (please god, no)
- “you’ll meet so many people” (PLEASE GOD, NO)
- “just quit your job and go” (… you want me to do what?)
i started traveling later in life. i didn’t have some life-altering moment. i’ve always been a little neurodivergent and weird. i just started. slowly, awkwardly, unsure.
anyway, this blog is mostly me not knowing what to do with my hands in pics in various landscapes.
awkwardly abroad 
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