Your first solo trip is where you find out you’re more capable than your group chat ever let you be.

Traveling alone strips out the roles a group hands you. In a familiar circle somebody is always the navigator, the one who talks to strangers, the one who is bad with money, and those roles harden without anyone deciding. On your own every job falls to you, and it turns out you can do several of them fine.

Start small and safe: a day trip, a bus to a nearby city, a show by yourself. Tell somebody where you are going and when you are back. Notice what you handled that you had assumed you could not.