What the Journey Gave Me

Some journeys give us joy. Others give us clarity or courage. Travel has a way of placing us in unfamiliar spaces where the noise falls away and the truth has room to surface.

Just say YES! - by Deanna Westland

At 18, I boarded a plane to Vietnam alone. No grand plan. No life strategy. Just a backpack and a slightly overconfident sense of independence. I didn’t realise it at the time, but that flight quietly changed the direction of my life. What started as curiosity quickly turned into something far more addictive; a hunger for discomfort, connection and perspective.

Since then, I’ve travelled to nearly 50 countries, lived in Japan, and taken on adventures that stretched me well beyond my comfort zone — including an overland journey from London to Beijing, travelling through Syria and Pakistan. It was chaotic, eye-opening, uncomfortable and completely unforgettable!

Travel, for me, has never been about collecting passport stamps like trophies. It’s about the moments that slightly undo you, in the best way. It’s arriving somewhere new and realising you can’t read a single sign. It’s ordering food and hoping for the best. It’s missing buses, taking wrong turns, and figuring it out anyway.

When you strip away familiarity, you discover what you’re made of. You learn to stay calm when plans change (because they always do). You learn to trust your instincts. You realise you’re far more capable than you thought, even if you do occasionally end up on the wrong train. Booking the ticket is the hardest part. It’s easy to convince yourself you’ll go “one day.” But “one day” has a funny way of never arriving.

It doesn’t have to be extreme. It doesn’t have to be halfway across the world. Adventure can be a solo weekend away, a road trip, a hike you’ve been putting off, or exploring more of your own backyard in Australia. You don’t need a dramatic story, you just need to say yes.

Travel has given me resilience, independence, stories I’ll never stop telling, an itch that refuses to go away, and a digestive system with a passport of its own. You never come back exactly the same. You come back a little braver. A little broader. A little more certain that the world is far bigger and friendlier than you imagined.

You don’t have to visit 50 countries, you just have to start with one.

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