What I Want Most This Year: Move Abroad and Travel Alone
Exploring new worlds and finding myself in the process
As I was scrolling through this platform with my morning cup of coffee, I chanced upon my good friend Megan’s post where she shared a prompt for January — what do I desire the most this year?
That got me to put down my mug and think. I had already decided on some resolutions that I hope to complete but I hadn’t thought about what I want more than anything in 2022. I immediately grabbed a piece of paper and started furiously jotting down whatever came to my mind regarding this.
College admissions? Moving to the UK? A career? A girlfriend?
Happiness? Well, that is something I would love to have every year, to be honest.
Getting into my dream university and moving abroad definitely come first on my list. But if that’s so, is it the immense pleasure of studying hard and burning myself out that I desire the most in life this year?
No. But, moving to another country to start a fresh chapter of my life is indeed what would satisfy my heart the most this year. I was donning this anxious and introverted personality for far too long and I need to shed it. I remember the tremendous transformation my personality underwent when I lived alone away from home in a university hostel for the first time in my life. It was for the good. It was cute while it lasted. So I have high hopes for this next phase.
Traveling alone is something I always enjoy. During my college years, I had made airports my second home, took time for myself, and traveled from city to city. Apart from the sheer joy of it, I believe it helped me grow as an independent person.
I learned the pros and cons of people and grew familiar with the way of the world which I was unaware of, until a couple of years ago. I was only used to depending on my parents and could not even imagine going out alone to a store across the road to buy something.
One time my mom sent me to buy bread from the bakery down the road, I ran back sweating when the shopkeeper asked what type of bread I wanted to buy. This was in 2016. I was 19. Social anxiety is a bitch.
(I still don’t do anything on my own now that I am back home, but hey, at least now I know how to deal with the outside world when I venture out alone! :P)
Broadening the horizons to my perception of life is my ultimate goal for 2022. Falling in love with a place completely strange to me might take a while. Moving from India to the UK is a huge change and I hope to not be overwhelmed by it. I want to settle down for a while, meet new people and take in the sights of the places which were introduced to me in the novels of Blyton and Austen.
Fingers crossed.
The inspiration behind this write-up:
Would you please consider buying me a coffee? Thank you so much. As an Indian national deprived of her MPP rights, this gesture of yours means a lot!
Love.
