Travel may look effortless from the outside, but the longer I travel, the more I realize preparation is part of the experience too. Insurance, vaccinations, backup plans, and practical details aren’t the opposite of freedom—they’re often what make it possible.

Travel changes your relationship with fear. Over time, I realized much of the conversation around hitchhiking is driven more by cultural mythology than lived experience—and that awareness matters far more than fear alone.

Costa Rica reminded me of the version of travel that made me fall in love with backpacking in the first place — humid air, long bus rides, jungle roads, and nights spent staring at stars so bright they barely felt real.

Travel changes your relationship with money in ways exchange rates never could. Somewhere between unfamiliar currencies, cheap street food, overpriced airport coffee, and mentally converting everything back into dollars, I realized money isn't just about what it buys—it's about the freedom it gives you.

Lebanon didn't feel completely foreign to me. It felt familiar in the way family recipes, loud dinner tables, and stories passed down through generations sometimes do—like parts of my identity existed there long before I ever arrived.

London felt exactly how I imagined it would—rainy, endlessly walkable, and full of neighborhoods that each seemed to have a completely different personality.