Excerpt
Dame Traveler
Introduction
"Once in a while it really hits people that they don't have to experience the world in the way they have been told to." —Alan Keightley
For as long as I can remember, I have felt out of place. Growing up in a strict Middle Eastern community in Michigan, I found myself constantly questioning the status quo. “Why am I being forced into this mold of a woman that I don’t identify with? Why should marriage and raising children at a young age be my only priority? Why am I not enough?” These questions constantly haunted me.
With cultural barriers and different perspectives on how life should be lived, the type of expectations placed on many girls and women in my community just didn’t align with the vision I had for my life. By the age of twenty, I had had enough. I knew in my heart of hearts that there was something more for me outside of the bubble I was born into . . . and I was going to find it. I didn’t know where my life was heading, but I promised myself that I wasn’t going to settle by taking the traditional path.
During this time, I began volunteering at a local hospital and became inspired by the dedication and selflessness of the nurses that I assisted, which led me to start taking prerequisite classes for nursing school. As I progressed in my studies, I knew that I needed to get out of Michigan, but, at the time, I didn’t believe I had the confidence to be accepted into universities; and then I woke up at 4 a.m. one morning, and something called me to give it a shot and to impulsively send my applications to nursing schools in major cities like New York City and Chicago. Ever since I first caught a glimpse of the glimmering skyline on our family trips to Chicago, living in a big city had become a far fetched dream of mine, and this late night wake-up call was my attempt at making it a reality.
After pressing send, I never imagined I would hear back from universities. But a month later, I received an acceptance letter from Loyola University in Chicago. I sat in a café as I ate lunch, opening my mail, and caught a glimpse of the envelope. At first glance, I thought it was just a brochure and was about to throw it away. But then I noticed the word congratulations on the bottom. I cried happy tears in public that day as the reality set in that my life was about to drastically change.
Achieving such a huge step was a feat, and life in my new city became harder and harder with each passing day. I was on my own emotionally, mentally, and financially in a place where I didn’t know a single soul, and was quietly fighting criticism from my community back in Michigan because it wasn’t common for women like me to leave their families before getting married. But I persisted.
During this intense phase of my life, I made another impulsive decision and booked a flight to Cape Town, South Africa, to volunteer at an orphanage. Tired of waiting on indecisive friends to join me, I embarked on my first solo trip ever in 2011. I still remember crying on the flight, asking myself if I had made a huge mistake . . . but after successfully spending three weeks in Cape Town on my own, making new friends, and feeling empowered, I discovered my love for solo travel and for the world. This trip helped to build my confidence, and I wanted more of that feeling. Little did I know at the time that more of it was just around the corner.
I graduated from nursing school in 2013 and built a life of my own in Chicago. The more it felt like home, the more the city became my safe haven. I snagged a job as a labor and delivery nurse shortly after. But of course, just as I thought everything was going smoothly . . . life had other plans.
Let’s rewind to when I was twelve and had an 80-degree scoliosis curvature that required immediate spinal fusion surgery. It was a bother during nursing school, but the chronic pain was just something I learned to live with until I suffered a major injury while on the job, drastically changing my life yet again. After going to “break the bed” to slide a patient onto a stretcher, I underestimated its weight and lost control of the metal, crushing my back, and fell into bed rest for six months. My floor nursing career was over due to its physical intensity.
Luckily, this curve ball was not my first rodeo—I like to think that every time a door closes, my unwavering faith leads me to discover a new one to open. Growing up, photography was always a therapeutic outlet for me. I was known as the family photographer at every wedding, capturing candid moments of my friends and family. This hobby continued into nursing school, where I used it as a creative outlet from my studies and would lock myself in the photography darkroom for hours. And as I went on to travel solo, I began capturing the world through my eyes and lens.
Bored, uninspired, and at a loss while frantically searching for nonphysical nursing jobs that I couldn’t see myself doing, I realized I needed a passion project while I was on bed rest to distract myself. It was during this downtime that I would catch myself dreaming of faraway places. I wanted a way to live vicariously through other solo female travelers, and that led me to notice a lack of a female travel community in 2013, on the newly popular photography app, Instagram. I created Dame Traveler as a way to celebrate brave women making bold decisions, both in travel and in their lives. When it came time to give this newborn passion project a name, I searched through my
Merriam Webster dictionary and I found “Dame: A woman of rank, station, or authority.”
I chose the name
Dame Traveler because I wanted to exemplify strength, fearlessness, and courage. When a woman travels solo, she throws fear to the wind and trusts the universe to protect her while she uses her instincts to make smart decisions. Coming from a community where many women live under a microscope, I wanted to create a space that exists to break those barriers and to empower women to be brave with their lives.
So a Dame Traveler is any woman who aspires to lead a life of courage, curiosity, and compassion.
Looking back, I’m in awe of the universe’s serendipitous ways. These challenging yet important phases of my life led me to where I am today. Maybe, if I hadn’t woken up at 4 a.m. and impulsively applied to schools outside of Michigan, I would never have had the chance to expand my mind and grow as a woman. Maybe if I didn’t chase my dreams of being a city girl, I wouldn’t have ended up calling the city of dreams, New York City, my forever home. Maybe if I hadn’t injured myself on the job, I would never have had the chance to see the world. Maybe, just maybe, if I hadn’t broken away and started a new chapter for myself so long ago, I would have allowed fear to dictate my life, and it would have led me in a totally different direction. Who would have thought that after all of that, my parents would eventually become my greatest supporters?
And so, whatever it is that you desire to do . . . whether it’s to travel, to move to a new city, to go against the grain, or to defy the expectations that others have set for you—do it. The scarier it may seem, the better. It will be difficult at first, but the struggles will pass eventually and, no matter the outcome, you’ll be proud that you tried. This community is more than an Instagram account filled with dream-inducing pictures of women gazing toward far-off places. We are more than a hashtag categorizing women’s travels. Our mission is a movement that inspires and empowers women to
travel more, experience more, and be more. We strive to offer female travelers the encouragement and resources to explore all that is waiting for them in the world.
From backpackers in Peru to artists in Berlin to storytellers in Morocco, we believe in celebrating the diversity and bravery of women from around the world who are not afraid to think (and live) outside the box. Dame Travelers exemplify the spirit of true adventurers. Our curated collection of stories from the road and illustrative, empowering photography allows any woman to travel the world and share every snapshot. Our mission is not to portray an unimaginable fantasy, but to share real-life examples of female travelers who made their dreams a reality.
We believe in the incredible power that travel lends to those who go for it.
Dame Traveler is yours. It’s your place, it’s your community.
It’s my hope that this collection of Dame Travelers’ photos, stories, and insights from their experiences will fill you with enthusiasm for—and the desire to explore—this fascinating world we call home. Organized by the main anchors of destinations around the world—architecture, water, culture, and nature—each section of the book will feature everything from safety alerts and destination-specific tips to quotes from Dame Travelers about their takeaways and discoveries that are scattered between each beautiful moment captured during their adventures.
