By Sabriya Dobbins, Project Passport Founder

Life is an absolute whirlwind when you really think about it. You grow up. Graduate high school. Then what? College? Work? Travel? Something happens in that transition that sets off the turn of events for your future. One day, you wake up and you’re 24 while your life has flashed before your very eyes. It feels like just yesterday, you were just 16 and picking out an outfit for the biggest party of the year. Now you are probably in that awkward place trying to figure out how to pay bills and what you will be doing for the next 40 years until retirement. Lot of pressure right?

Around the ages of 23-25, you start to really re-evaluate your life and where you are. Maybe you are miserable? Comfortable? Or maybe you could not be any happier while you read this blog. 9 times out of 10, you are just trying to figure this thing out like the rest of us. There are one too many studies out there trying to determine what people need in order to “find” themselves. There honestly is no real formula to this thing. A bit of mess ups here, some pep talks there, everything helps you slowly crawl into the person you are meant to be.

Travel is usually mentioned as the number one thing to help you find yourself. But how does it really help? What does that even mean? Truthfully, travel alone is not what finds you. You are who finds you. The real reason for the travel is the separation from your current reality to enter the realm of a new reality. You need to be ripped from what you know in order to peer through the looking glass back at yourself. You do not know what you do not know until you are in a place that you do not know. Crazy right? The more uncomfortable you are, the better.

When you leave your home base, you are put into fight and defense mode at the same time. Give it some time and those walls both begin to fall. Because the world is not out to convenience you, your layers are slowly peeled away until you have no choice but to deal with yourself. The quiet is so loud when you walk the streets of a place you do not call home. Your symphony of thoughts have the opportunity to run quickly through your head with total and absolute freedom. You have time to reflect. You have time to really think about you.

The hustle and bustle of work, daily chores, daily plans, friends and family keep your world loud inside. When you are home, you know everything. When you are away, you are lost. But being lost challenges you. Being lost strains you but then it engrains you with a courage you did not know you had. It teaches you to appreciate depending on yourself and not the comfort of the world around you. Being lost is being found. So travel my dear friend. Travel to places you do not know so they can help you, know you.

***

Project Passport is a mental empowerment retreat and event company created to help women connect with one another and gain the tools to improve their lives in the best way possible. Each retreat experience has a unique theme with carefully designed activities to help participants grow and experience transformation. We are making mental wellness the norm, one retreat at a time. Learn more at project-passport.com.