Could you tell me a time you felt fulfilled?

The kind of holidays that meant getting up at 2am to go to the airport and stepping off the plane a few hours later to that amazing holiday smell hot countries always seem to have were what I lived for as a kid. As a teenager I wasn’t fussed about University (yet), so I took a gap year with a bunch of strangers in the same position after finishing high school and moved to a country so different from everything I knew. Since then I’ve taken trips with friends at pretty much any given opportunity, but it wasn’t until I travelled alone that I felt a sense of complete satisfaction – like I had been waiting for this experience the whole time. It did so much for my self-esteem in such a short time and energised my mind in so many ways. I bought my 1-month interrail ticket in January 2018, one month after my mum passed away. At this point I was still terrified of travelling alone, but I was in a ‘fuck it’ state of mind. It turned out to be one of my best decisions to date. I’d met loads of solo travellers on my previous trips away with friends, and always both loved and felt intimidated by how confident they were and how I so wanted to be that kind of person. Eventually I realised that I was that kind of person. I went all in, travelling to 8 different European cities in one month and connecting with so many people with the same ideas about life as me and it was incredible. I felt happy and fulfilled and so grateful for the opportunities I’ve had and for this big massive love for travel that will never go away. The trip that shaped me lasted only a month but I’ll take fleeting amazing friendships and new perspectives in stunning countries over a stationary life any day.