1. Learn how to make decisions.

For me, traveling alone was one crash course in making decisions–just keep on rolling the dice and see what comes up. Stop the research. Stop the analysis paralysis. Just keep choosing and living. In travel, everything is as it is, and there’s always another day to change course and choose again. A lot more happens in life when you stop worrying about what to do and just go.

学会做决定

对于我，独自旅行是学习怎样做决定的速成班——就是不停地滚动骰子看看有什么出现。不再调查研究，不再优柔寡断，只是不断地做出选择和生活。人在旅途，事事顺其自然，而且总是有一天要改变路线从新选择。如果你停下来而不是发愁该做什么时，会有更多的事发生。

2. Openness to the world.

The sense of risk and heightened reward is what draws me to traveling alone. Traveling with a friend can be an adventure too, but the adventure quotient is usually higher when you are alone. You’re more vulnerable in the sense that you have to seek out company and help. Hey, just because I’m traveling alone doesn’t mean I can’t ask a hunky Carioca volleyball player to put sunscreen on the hard-to-reach places. That’s the advantage of traveling alone, isn’t it? Openness to adventure.

对世界敞开怀抱

冒险的感觉和增加的回报吸引着我独自旅行。和朋友一起旅行也可以是冒险，但只有你一个人时冒险的份量通常会更高。因为你想要获得旅伴和帮助，感觉上你更脆弱些。嗨，独自旅行并不意谓着我不能请里约热内卢一位打排球的美男子帮我在自己难以够到的背上涂防晒油。这也独自旅行的好处，不是吗？对冒险敞开怀抱吧。

3. The grace of trusting in strangers.

Traveling alone also teaches you to trust your fellow men and women. They are the ones who help you out when you are in need. I will never forget the man who stopped a long-distance bus for me in Colombia so he could go buy me Coke and toilet paper (I confessed to him that I had “digestive” issues right before we got on the bus). Then he invited me to his family’s home for lunch, and I still get emails from the family saying they will never forget me.

信任陌生人

独自旅行也教会你信任和你同道的男男女女。他们就是那些在你有需要时会帮忙的人。我永远不会忘记在哥伦比亚有一个男人，为了我，他停下长途汽车，去给我买可乐和卫生纸（我对他坦白，我就在上车前患有“消化不良”）。后来他还邀请我到他家里午餐。我现在还收到他们家的邮件说不会忘记我。

4. Star in your own movie.

When you travel alone, the trip is completely yours. You are the star of your own movie. All the mistakes are yours to make, the serendipitous discoveries to enjoy, and the insights to savor. The recollection of the trip is entirely personal and private.

做自己的主角

独自旅行时，旅程完全是你一个人的。你是自己电影里的明星。犯自己的错误，欣赏偶然的发现，品味自己的领悟。对旅程的回忆完全是个人的和隐私的。

5. A new best friend (or love).

In a whole year of travel, I made a new best friend who I know will be a friend for life. We will be at each other’s weddings if we get married, we coach each other through our post-(or newly)-travel lives, and we hope to meet up for other adventures in Africa, Asia, and to dance tango in Buenos Aires. Our friendship is pure gold and we have both helped each other grow in innumerable ways. That openness to a new friend might not have been there if I had already been traveling with someone else. And who knows? You might meet the love of your life.

遇到挚友（甚至挚爱）

在一次整年的旅行中，我交到一个要好终生的新朋友。我们承诺会出现在对方的婚礼上，我们会相互指导旅行后（或是新旅行）的生活，我们期望着在非洲、亚洲的旅行中再次相遇并在布宜诺斯艾利斯一起跳探戈舞。我们曾在（哥伦比亚西部城市）卡利一起度过近两个月，又在布宜诺期艾利斯相遇相聚了两个月。我们的友情纯洁珍贵，有无数个时候我们相互帮助成长。如果当时我和另外一个人一起旅行，我可能不会对新朋友如此真挚直率。谁知道呢？你也许会在旅行中遇上自己一生的至爱。