Act 7: Culture (Via an Adventuring Heart)
In honor of Women’s History Month (which technically is now over, but this project is a product of the month of March), I am sharing my own little herstory via an extended prose-and-photo essay I’ve entitled, “My Solitary Seattle Sojourn.” For context, please (re)visit my Celebrating International Women’s Day article that I published on International Women’s History Day, March 8: Celebrating International Women’s Day | LinkedIn. That piece is the Introduction to this essay collage.
A brief summary of that: I spent 3 months in Seattle in 1999 and fell head over heels in love with this city. Throughout the 24 years since that magical experience, I had a recurring dream of coming back for an extended stay. I took advantage of the AWP 2023 Writer’s Conference in Seattle earlier this month as a starting point for a 3-week solo adventure here, the purpose of which was to relive some of my previous adventure while declaring new experiences in a new adventure, and documenting the insights gained through the comparison of then-and-now (to the place, and to me, the person). Oh, and doing all this while also working on a memoir draft about a primary friendship that recently ended.
I flew home Wednesday, March 29, a newly inspired woman, and now I aim to keep the fires burning into the coming alive of Spring.
Now, on to my Love Letter to Seattle, in 10 Acts. I will post each act separately, with a link to the previous act.
Photo/Essay Table of Contents:
Pre-Act: Introduction: Celebrating International Women’s Day | LinkedIn
Act 1: Literature: My Solitary Seattle Sojourn: A Prose-and-Photo Essay in 10 Acts | LinkedIn
Act 2: Food/Service Industry My Solitary Seattle Sojourn, Act 2: Food / Service | LinkedIn
Act 3: Coffee! My Solitary Seattle Sojourn, Act 3: Coffee! | LinkedIn
Act 4: The City (Landscape of My Heart) My Solitary Seattle Sojourn, Act 4: The City (Landscape of My Heart) | LinkedIn
Act 5: Birds (7) My Solitary Seattle Sojourn: Act 5: Sea(ttle) Birds | LinkedIn
Act 6: Nature / Parks (3) My Solo Seattle Sojourn: Act 6: Nature | LinkedIn
Act 7: Culture(Via an Adventuring Heart) You Are Here!
Act 8: Bus Route 10
Act 9: The Grim Reaper
Act 10: Solitary Sundays
Post-Act: Acknowledgments
While in Seattle for my extended solo stay, I found it incredibly easy to approach strangers, and for the most part, these strangers reciprocated kindly. I tend to judge the culture of a place in part by the level of friendliness or receptiveness of its people. I imagine impressions of this type have something to do with survival, considering how marginalized peoples in our country or around the world have had to learn to judge the relative safety of a place according to the atmosphere of those they encounter.
In Seattle the first time, in 1999, I found it easy to make friends there. And not only superficial friends that you might hang out with at a bar (I was 22 at the time), but people with whom I shared my feelings and outlook on the world. And while I didn’t have the time to get nearly as deep into my interactions with people I met in Seattle this past March, I was pleased with the genuine conversations that sprang from those I approached with honest questions and curiosities, this time mostly in coffee shops and cafes.
But with the distance now of a few months since my time there, I’ve reflected more on the relative freedom that I feel while traveling, or staying someplace temporarily. Away from the daily grind, the responsibilities of “home,” away from the routine that brings about mostly what we expect it to, adventuring opens my heart in such a way that I imagine the rainbow aura that pours out in these times is at once welcoming and engaging. Happiness begets happiness, friendliness (usually/hopefully?) begets friendliness. And the times I feel most free are the times I am living a temporary existence in a world not typically my own.
Still, the culture of a place obviously makes a big difference, regardless of the good vibes I may be putting out. And while my time in Seattle last March was not devoid of negative encounters (I had one particularly upsetting interaction that I will write about in a later Act), there is a sensation intertwined within that city’s streets and Nature that roused my spirit in an intensely good way both times I visited (decades apart).
Traveling alone opens opportunities for immersion into the culture of a place if you allow yourself to walk through the openings. You aren’t beholden to your loved ones (or not so loved ones) who comprise your typical day-to-day, so you’re free to move and act as you please, when you please, whyever you please. Being led forward by my interest, curiosity, and sense of adventure, I tune into my feelings and let them guide me down verdant alleyways, through treelined neighborhoods, along shores and bus lines and even the gritty underbellies of society, so that I may experience the spectrum of humanity and scenery, both alive and projecting their own auras.
As a woman traveling alone, I find I must make choices and compromises that male solo travelers are not required to make, for my own safety and sanity. But with precaution and the right tools (walking stick, pepper spray in a pouch, alertness and attentiveness), I glide through mostly unafraid, mostly fascinated, content, compelled.
On my porch at home, where I know exactly what to expect, I try to tap that adventure vein through not only the memories of recent travels, but the inspiration those travels feed for future travels. I’m unsure when I’ll be back in Seattle, but pondering my time there is enticing my anticipation for an upcoming trip to New York City this month where, after attending a conference with my GED colleagues, I will spend a couple days and nights doing my solo thing again.
PS: (I’m calling this a PS b/c the last paragraph really felt like the right conclusion to this essay, but I haven’t yet commented on the fact that during my March Seattle stay, I was visited by 3 loved ones at various times: Friend Paul, Sister-in-Law Havilah, Husband Chris. While I lauded the solo aspect of a travel adventure, breaking the alone time with occasional travel partners is another fulfilling way to be yourself differently, and assuming you’re all having a good time, your loved ones who are with you for a spell will likely benefit from this atypical expression of your personality.)
