After her engagement was called off, the American woman sought to heal herself and decided to take her first solo international trip .
Angela, a master's graduate in her 40s, had never traveled alone except for a trip from the US to China to visit family in 2018. In November 2023, Angela decided to take her first solo trip to Denmark and Sweden to heal her soul after her engagement to her fiancé was called off.
Angela took this photo during a trip to the Colosseum in Rome, Italy, in December 2023. Photo: Insider
Angela was born and raised in Beijing in a traditional Chinese family. From a young age, her parents taught her that "being academically successful is the only way to succeed in life," so she dedicated most of her time to studying, not thinking about travel or other things she enjoyed. In the early 2000s, Angela went to Texas, USA, to study, then moved to San Francisco in 2017 and became a US citizen. To fulfill her parents' wishes, after achieving success in her career, Angela began looking for someone to marry and have children.
In 2020, she got engaged and planned to get married, but realized her fiancé wasn't the right person. She also realized she had been living up to her parents' expectations, fearing judgment instead of prioritizing herself. "That was one of the most challenging years of my life," Angela said.
After the broken engagement, she worked hard to heal herself. In 2023, Angela decided to travel internationally alone – something she had never done before. "For the first time, I found myself putting myself and my desires first," Angela said about the decision and began documenting her trip on TikTok and Instagram.
A month after her first trip, Angela continued her travels, visiting eight cities in Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, and the Vatican, spending $8,000. This February, she visited Iceland for her birthday.
Angela works at the school, so she has time off according to the students' schedule. Therefore, she has plenty of free time, and her years of hard work have helped her save enough money to travel comfortably.
One of the things Angela loves most about traveling solo is being able to meet many people from different walks of life. Being an extrovert and sociable person, Angela chose to stay in a shared room instead of a private hotel room so she could get to know other travelers from different places. She realized that simply striking up a conversation and saying hello was enough to make friends.
While visiting the Colosseum in Rome, Angela met another solo traveler. After helping each other take photos, they chatted and spent the rest of the day exploring the city and having dinner together. "I've met many different people in the same way," she said.
Traveling also helped Angela step out of her comfort zone. "Traveling solo is a powerful experience," she says, because it gives her complete freedom to decide what she wants to do, where she wants to go, and when she wants to be alone or socialize.
Travel has helped Angela explore and develop herself, broadening her knowledge. She also realized that there's no need to live within rigid boundaries because " the world is vast and everyone has their own way of living a fulfilling life."
( According to Insider )
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