Traveling in your 20s is something everyone should try at least once. And if you haven’t yet, ask yourself why. What’s holding you back? Not because it’s easy, but because it changes you in ways you cannot predict. To be honest, travel shifted the entire trajectory of my life and what I thought I wanted out of it.
When I was 22, I dreamt of marriage, kids, and a loving husband who would take care of me. And while those things are still on my radar, they are no longer the focus. Not since I learned what’s waiting for you beyond a small hometown in the middle of Illinois.
At 23, I went through a breakup that wrecked me. The kind that stays with you and makes you question everything; love, trust, the life you thought you were building. It shook me so hard that something in me cracked open. And in that chaos, I made a choice: to let go of what I thought I knew and do something completely different. So I dropped over five thousand dollars on a 35-day backpacking trip across Europe.
For context, I had never traveled alone. My experience up until then included a few trips to Mexico, Disney World, and a guided vacation to Greece with my grandma. I had no idea how to be alone in a new country. I wasn’t running toward adventure. I was running from heartbreak. But something in me knew I needed this.
That moment changed everything.
When June finally rolled around, it was time to be the main character in my own story. A role I had not stepped into in a long time. I flew over 24 hours and took three planes to finally land in Barcelona… where I discovered my massive Osprey backpack had been left behind in New York (cue the tears).
I had nothing but a string bikini and flip-flops in my carry-on.
There I was. Alone in a foreign airport. Crying in the corner (no joke). Regretting everything. No clothes. No makeup. No toothbrush. No idea what I was doing. And yet, somehow, I kept going. To this day, I still don’t know how I did it. Pure adrenaline maybe.
Soon, I was distracted from my inevitable doom that was my poor missing Osprey by other solo travelers who also had booked the same EF trip as me. These strangers became my friends within hours. Slowly, the heartbreak and fear started to fade.
Eventually, my backpack showed up, and the rest of that trip felt unreal.
I danced until sunrise, explored hidden corners of countries I had only seen on Tiktok, and met people I still love to this day. I remember riding a bus through the Swiss countryside, staring out the window with my headphones in, thinking this feels like the beginning of something.
And it was.
Since then, I have traveled to over 25 countries. If I had waited until I felt fully ready or confident, I might still be waiting. All it really took was one step, one moment of saying yes, and everything started from there. I have soaked in new cultures, stumbled into new friendships, gotten incredibly lost, and found pieces of myself I didn’t know were missing.
But here is what no one really tells you about traveling in your 20s. It will challenge every part of you, and that is exactly why it matters. If you’re waiting to feel ready, this is your sign to lean into the discomfort and see where it takes you. It’s hard.
It’s not just cute cafes and aesthetic views. It’s uncomfortable. It forces you to face yourself. It demands decisions you don’t feel ready to make. It asks you to step into the unknown over and over again.
A friend once told me that in life, we all have to choose our hard. Being in a toxic relationship is hard. Leaving it is hard. Staying stuck is hard. Taking a leap is hard. You just have to decide which version of hard is worth it.
For me, spending money I didn’t really have to take that leap with EF Ultimate Break was hard. But staying home and feeling stuck in my sadness was hard too.
Choosing discomfort changed everything.
That one trip built a scaffolding effect. It introduced me to people I will never forget and gave me stories I will be telling for the rest of my life. It gave me the confidence to start this blog and finally share my version of travel, the honest one that I see absolutely no where on social media.
Traveling in your 20s is uncomfortable. That’s the truth. It’s unknown. It’s expensive and messy and overwhelming. But discomfort is where change begins. It’s often where the most meaningful growth happens. So what would your life look like if you said yes to just one uncomfortable thing today?
And just so we are clear, I don’t have it all figured out. I’m 26 and still learning, still messing up, still growing. But what if you did say yes to the trip you always dreamed of? What if you left the job that was slowly draining you? What if you finally walked away from that relationship that did nothing but hold you back?
“What if you chose discomfort — not because it’s easy, but because it might be the very thing that sets you free?“
xoxo Millie
Wander With Millie 