Tag: women

Traveling as A Woman

March 31, 2024 by Ruth Misori

The many times in which I have encountered women and have informed them of my plans to travel, their responses are always encouraging and positive. In fact, most women (especially older) will admit that they wish they could travel if they hadn’t settled down or jokingly advise me to continue traveling as much as I can while I’m still young or before I have children. I usually nod in agreement and while I understand that they’re being playful, they’re also being serious at the same time. It’s like their unspoken way of saying,” You have been granted more opportunities as a woman than I have ever seen in my lifetime.” I mean, it’s true because when I look back at the history of previous generations of women, it is very clear that their opportunities to become independent or develop hobbies for themselves were very limited. Obviously, they could forget about traveling! Of course, this wasn’t coming from a malicious point of view, it was just the reality of older women who grew up in that time. Actually, I view that statement as their way of saying, “Atta, girl!” because while they did not receive the same opportunities as I do today, they’re still rooting for me and other young women who do travel.

Solo traveling in general has especially been beneficial for me as I feel more liberated to express my creativity and discover future interests that I wouldn’t otherwise have if I hadn’t gone on my own adventures. Traveling itself is a gift for me because it’s a reminder that I am actually living out the life that only my grandmothers can imagine or the one that my mother often ponders. Being able to travel has been very difficult from women in the 1800’s and 1900’s, and women weren’t even allowed to open up their own bank accounts without their spouse’s signatures until 1974 (In the United States). I mean, that was only 50 years ago, so that’s not too long ago! I can’t even imagine how long it took before women were allowed to have their own passports because that’s absolutely crazy!

The blood, sweat, and tears that countless generations of women had to endure so that young women like me could have numerous amounts of opportunities is very inspiring because my grandmother’s generation of women had to walk so that my mother’s generation of women could run. And my mother’s generation of women had to run so that my generation of women can fly. And you best believe that I will bloody soar like an eagle! I never want to take the opportunities of traveling for granted, and I hope any woman who travels doesn’t either because we are living proof that when we set out minds to do things, we can thrive.

I distinctly remembered when the first time that I travelled across the pond at 17 was the moment when I realized that I wanted to live abroad. I was definitely scared at first before I entered the plane, but once I actually arrived in the UK and thoroughly enjoyed my experience was when I began thinking that I could make this dream of living abroad one day a reality, and it was a beautiful epiphany. Because of that experience alone, I have decided that I will have more faith in myself for the moment when I do decide to finally pull the trigger and move abroad one day to navigate life. I’m aware that while living abroad is much different from visiting, I do believe that this future endeavor will challenge me in ways that I’ve never experienced, change my outlook on life as well as for a lot of women’s and I can’t wait for that day when I finally get to live abroad.