Solo travel is an amazing opportunity for women to enjoy life. When I was single, I traveled to many places alone, or with a group in which I was a single individual without a partner. China, San Diego, Haiti, New York City, and Hawaii were a few of the places I visited as a single/non-dating lady. I learned a lot about myself on those trips and cultivated important relationships.
When you embark on solo travel, take the time to ask yourself some questions. Even if you don’t ask them aloud, there are things you should know about yourself before you walk down the aisle…
4 Questions Answered through Solo Travel as You Prepare for Marriage
There are 4 main questions that you need to ask when you’re planning to travel somewhere. Not so coincidentally, these are the same questions that women should ask themselves before they get married.
- Who are you?
- Where are you going?
- How are you going to get there?
- What do you plan to do when you arrive?
Who are you?
Who you are is about more than your name. Engage in solo travel to figure out what you like and why you like it. In Jeremiah 1:5, God says that He knew who we were before we got here. We didn’t know who we were when we got here and part of of our faith walk is figuring that out. All of your life experiences are an opportunity to learn more about yourself and who you are. When you travel, are you the person who likes to do all of the things? Are you the kind of person who needs to do absolutely nothing on vacation?
Where are you going?
When traveling, you pick a location for a reason. Be it a once-in-a-lifetime experience to check things off your bucket list or because a place elicits a certain feeling, you have a reason for going to a particular area. In preparing for marriage, you need to have some idea of where you want to go. Even if the “destination” changes over time, you need an idea of where you want to go. If you don’t know where you want to go, then how will you be able to answer the next question…
How are you going to get there?
One of the biggest barriers to solo travel is figuring out how you’re going to get to your location. Flights are expensive, travel from the airport to the hotel can be complicated. In everyday life, we have goals to achieve. How are you going to meet those goals? When you’re getting to know your partner, you need to know what their goals are and how they plan to get there. Marriage is about walking a path together. If your methods and end goals aren’t aligned on some level, you may not want to continue down that road.
What do you plan to do when you arrive?
What’s on your travel agenda? What do you want to do when you get to your location? Leaving home on a vacation with an itinerary helps to make the trip smoother and more memorable; planning things out helps to accomplish as many of the goals that you set for yourself. It helps to accomplish the goals in your marriage too. Often, women marry with the wedding in mind. The next day, they find themselves unprepared for marriage. Wedding preparation and marriage preparation are two different processes, with fundamentally different outcomes. Have you planned for what you’re going to do when you transition from bride to wife?
I lucked out finding a partner who wants to travel as much as I do; for your benefit, do as much solo travel as you can handle while you can. It’s vitally important to explore yourself and your outlook on life before you marry. Knowing who you are before you yoke yourself to someone else, goes a long way toward the success of your marriage.
As a single woman, where did/will you travel? What will you learn about yourself? Let me know in the comments below!
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