The Permission #solotrip 

Tripoto
Photo of The Permission #solotrip  1/1 by Aakansha Mehrotra

When one part of your life fails spectacularly, you need to shift your focus to travel because travelling is the only thing which will not disappoint.

Well that’s exactly why I wanted to travel solo. Initially not everyone was happy with it, everyone had different reasons but the only concern was my safety. While I did understand them, I also wanted them to understand me how important it was for me to travel solo. I decided to start convincing my brother first who wasn’t really against the idea but just didn’t want me to land in any problem so I rest assured him of how full proof my plan was. He was easy and very supportive. Now came my parents no honestly my mom because I knew if she’s okay, she’ll handle pretty much everyone. I made sure to have valid points before I started conversations with her. I used to make hot cups of tea for both of us and we would talk. I would tell her about how much I love adventure, nature, independence and eventually traveling. Traveling to far off places, exploring the beauty of mountains, the rage in ocean waves and the fire in deserts. I told her I wanted to go and do it all but solo.

That day she didn’t say much no questions, no cross questions, nothing and went to sleep. While I was ready for any doubt that rises, I wasn’t prepared for the nothingness, I hate no replies I get restless which makes me go crazy with all sorts of theories one can possibly make in their head. For this was the very reason I wanted to travel for some time to be able to make peace with what was going on in my life to able to learn from the mountains the quality of standing tall even after someone doesn’t realize how beautiful they are.

Finally after a wait of two long days mom came to me with this, “You are allowed to go where ever you want but for no more than 2 days. You will manage your stay, travel, food without getting anxious or worried. Keeping in touch with me and most importantly without being too quick to trust anyone.” Furthermore she summed up by saying, “ this is your test now if you do well in these 2 days, you make the most out of it, take care yourself and learn to love your own company and come back home with your mind at peace, I will never stop you from going to any other solo trip.” And our conversation ended gladly this one had a happy ending. I’m not sure what made her believe in me may be she could feel something in my voice by the way I explained things to her or see how my eyes lit up while sharing other people’s travel stories I don’t know what, it could be anything but what I do know is her trust on me made me feel confident. Sometimes all you need is a person who believes in you unconditionally.

Trusting on her trust on me I started to plan my trip to Bir, India’s paragliding capital. Now this will be another post.

What started as an experiment to heal myself is now becoming passion a way to feed my soul with all the peace It needs.