How Singlehood Prepared Me for Travel

With so many good friends scattered far beyond Madison, I love the opportunity to travel to visit friends. And I love traveling with friends to visit friends. And I can probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve been on such trips and got a bed.

In my single girl traveling experience, couples get dibs on spare bedrooms and extra beds. I’m not bitter about this; I understand math, and I understand that if I were to get one of the beds I would likely have to share it with half of the couple, who may or may not mistake me for their significant other in the middle of the night and put me in some full-body, three-quarters asleep cuddling strangle hold. I can’t imagine my shrieking would be pleasant for either of us. Or for the other half of the couple sleeping on the couch.

And it is excellent training. Due to the unspoken “just stick the single girl wherever is available” rule, I’ve slept on couches, cots, pull-outs, air mattresses, futons and floors. A lumpy hotel mattress, a backseat of a car or a tent sound luxurious compared to some of these.

Another unspoken rule of singledom is that you’re expected to go visit your coupled-off friends, especially if they have been be-childrened. Once again, I am not bitter. Really, it’s fine. I’ll come to you, where I can watch them break YOUR shit. And even for my coupled-off but child-free friends, our visits weigh heavily toward me being the one doing the traveling. Once again, I understand math, and recognize that two plane tickets are more expensive than one, and coordinating two schedules is 4.7 times harder than coordinating one (I believe that equation involves the natural logarithm of invitations per weekend and the inverse of boss anal-ness).

Combine these two truths and what does a single girl get? A much overlooked benefit of singlehood: excellent training for travel. Travel extensively and sleep anywhere? Check and check! Befriend truckers at the counter of a greasy spoon just off the interstate, swap stories about life and end up crying at hugging? Oh wait, is that just me?

It’s easy for us singles to get caught up in all that we don’t have, and it’s important to remember what is truly better being single. Like freedom. Like not having to coordinate with anyone else or leave anyone behind. We can just go, whenever we hear the world calling. And I hear it calling. Huzzah!