The conversation starts out easy over drinks in the main dining room on the cruise ship. I’m seated at a table that had a single open seat (perks of solo travel, there’s almost always room for one lol).
At the table are three older couples and a nice elderly widowed woman.
One couples celebrating 40 years.
Another couple has just recently retired and was taking their dream trip to see Alaska.
The last couple was making memories in the face of the wife’s memory loss diagnosis.
The widow loved taking cruises with her late husband and so she was here in his memory.
And then there was me… barely 30 something, single and alone at the dining table.
So of course they’re curious… People are always curious…
(I’ve discovered when they meet a woman traveling by herself)
It’s only polite after all the get to know the people you’re eating dinner with every night.
One of the ladies asks me after our appetizer order was taken, who I was traveling with.
I kindly smiled at her and said I was traveling “with myself”.
She laughed a little and said “Wow you’re so brave. I don’t think I could go on a cruise by myself.”
I laugh along with her, “I didn’t either but here I am…”
To be honest by the time I spoke with this woman at dinner she was the third or fourth woman I’d met so far on the tour that had said something along those lines to me.
I had spoken with multiple women over the line for coffee in the morning or at buffet in the unassigned seating there who all seemed to be saying the same thing. Even my spa treatment lady found it so curious that I was alone on the ship later in the week. But she said it too…
You’re so brave for doing this alone…
But really I’m not…
I just got tired of waiting…
Always waiting for someone else to be ready to go.
Always waiting for the right moment.
Always waiting for it to be perfect.
Well I was done waiting…
With the help of a travel agent I put together my dream Alaskan cruise vacation (which wasn’t even my dream! I got sold this dream by a coworker!!) and was on my way.
I don’t think I’m any braver than the next girl out there…
I honestly didn’t feel braver when I packed and unpacked my bag 16 times making sure I didn’t FORGET anything…
I felt a little bit crazy when my Lyft driver rolled up and helped me load my carry on and checked back into the trunk of his car.
I definitely felt out of place when I arrived in Anchorage alone early in the afternoon on “Day 1” of my adventure.
I still didn’t feel brave rolling my suitcase over to the cruise terminal at the airport and checking in. The lady there found my name on the list and placed tags on my carry on. (This would be the last time I’d see that bag for sometime… it was going to meet the ship, I was going to catch a bus to Denali.)
But it was the right time and it was MY TIME, ready or not. . .
It was the trip that changed my life and I’m happy I went, even if I was a little scared.
I’d love to know what you thought of this article.