What inspired you to do your first solo trip?

What inspired you to do your first solo trip?

I have an older sister and when I was still in school and living with my parents, she took a trip to Jerusalem. She was an anthropology major in college and was taking the trip for one of her courses/with her classmates to do a dig. I was so in awe of this and so inspired. What a cool thing to do! It was so far from the small town we grew up in and just opened up my mind to the idea of traveling and to seeing the world and seeing what was out there beyond our town. What were the people like? What was the music like? What was the food like? What was the architecture like? All of it!! Of course, this was well before the internet as we know it, so outside of educational books, I had never even seen or experienced anything like this; seeing pictures of her there and hearing about her experiences, changed me.

Literally. Fast forward to my early 20’s (divorced, single mom at this point) and I was living in Denver and working for a company that imported women’s fashion items (scarves, bags, etc.) from Turkey. Because we were actually manufacturing the scarves and bags there, we occasionally had to go to the manufacturing facility to inspect and also go to the city to look for other Turkish items that might make sense to import as well. I had to travel there for these things and while I eventually would meet up with colleagues, initially I had to travel there alone. This was super intimidating for me at that point, because prior to that, I had only been out of the country once and it was not a full trip, but simply crossing the border into Tijuana, Mexico from San Diego (not quite the world traveler yet)! It was really exciting and scary all at the same time, but the experience was LIFE CHANGING. From this trip on, I knew I wanted to see the world and now knew I could do it alone.

What inspired you to share your experiences here?

THE BEAR! I think that a lot of women are feeling alone and really craving honest and safe connection right now. I also feel like many women are feeling disillusioned and want to find a safe space where they can learn information, share their stories and experiences and become the best person they can be. Recently, we’ve seen movements like the 4B movement where women are taking back control of what they do and do not participate in. We’ve heard terrible stories and witnessed horrible cases where women are being threatened, violated and disrespected by not just strangers, but by men they know, trust and in some cases even love. With all of that going on, it seems to me that women are now going through a huge revolution and are wanting to find safe spaces, wanting to take back control of their lives, their bodies, their minds and really need other women to rise up alongside them. The way I see it, we all need to come together to support each other right now.

-Carrie H.