I want to address the issues of safety and fear. These are my beliefs. Maybe they will change as I experience some first-hand foreign cities... but I believe the following:
1. Location don't matter.
I am inherently as safe (and unsafe) walking around Portland, or Amherst, or anywhere in the USA as I will be walking around other cities in the world. People will speak different languages but people are generally good and this is true the world over. The liars and crooks and murderers exist in my hometown as well as in foreign cities. If I get robbed or murdered, it's not because of the location or a foreign influence; it's because I probably did something stupid and let an opportunistic thief see my wallet. THIS COULD HAPPEN ANYWHERE. Just as I take precautions at home, I will take precautions in other cities.
3. FEAR
No, I am not nervous. No, I'm not scared. I know that I will be, some night I will probably be somewhere I wish I wasn't, at an hour I wish it wasn't, but c'est la vie. When that situation arises, I welcome fear. It's my intuitive tool that something is wrong - the fear is OK, it's whatever reason my fear might arise that is the problem. So don't be scared for me unless you have a reason to be. (As in, if you and I are chatting and you can see someone walking up behind me with a baseball bat.) But generally, since you're the reader far far away, you won't have any specific reason to be scared. At the most you'll have a vague, general fear that something bad could happen. Well, that's not helpful at all. If I had that attitude - of vague, general worry all the time - then I actually might be more likely to actually have something bad happen to me. I'm only human; I'm only equipped with the inherent skills of any CIA operative; keen observation, quick wits, fast reflexes, surprising strength, and good shoes with which to run. So just wish me the best.
2. "ALONE"
Yes, I'm leaving on this trip, alone. Just like I was born as one person, I'll travel the world as one person. I got two feet, two hands, one mind. It's me me me. So stop being surprised that I'm going alone. That's how I roll. (I hate to sound harsh, but seriously!) If you will feel better to know or think I'll be with somebody, go ahead and believe it. Because I'm certain I will meet some number of other travelers who I will team up with for certain places and adventures. But short of becoming somebody else and inhabiting their body, I will be alone. And I like it! I am my favorite travel companion. Who else would I rather trust my safety and well being to? Nobody! Not even my dad, even though he's the closest second. :)
OK one more thing. Get this; it's a running analogy. When you run by yourself, you're used to sizing up cars in intersections and crossing streets all the time. You can cross when you want, you know your speed, it's easy. You are a fluid machine, one with the cars and the universe (or, the neighborhood). The point is, you know your speed. Now, as soon as you have a running partner, the whole thing gets messed up. One person starts to enter the intersection, but the other person stops. (Maybe they stopped even though they knew they could have made it, but weren't sure whether you could.) So maybe your instinct is to stop, because you don't want to leave your buddy behind. It's just a mess. When I run with someone else, we often find ourselves waiting at an intersection like two idiots, for a car half a mile away, out of concern for the other person. Nobody wants to be responsible for another person's getting hit by a car. But we easily could both have made it. Think it's ridiculous? It's not. It's why you should always act according to what's right for you. As soon as somebody else starts concerning themselves with what another person is going to do, sh*t can hit the fan and the zen universe stops.
4. Reliance on other people
This trip is not for trying to conquer the world alone. Many of my goals for this trip involve other people - ways of life, communication, style and culture. I will ask for help when I need it. I know there is safety in numbers. I welcome companionship along the way. (Have you ever noticed how strangers will sit in a coffee shop together for 30 minutes and feel safe asking each other to keep an eye on their stuff while they go to the restroom?) I'm not saying I will be doing this necessarily, but I'm commenting on an alliance among strangers that can be established even on small, even imperceptible bonds. I will try to talk to people whenever I sense it's welcome, and definitely when it's important for my safety. I'm going to be a passive observer when that's necessary as well.
So, what you can do is, if you see someone in your neighborhood who looks like they could use a friend or some help finding a safe place to relax, talk to them. Because hopefully their friend somewhere else is talking to me.
I've been so pleasantly surprised with the positive reactions I've gotten from everyone - friends, family, even strangers. Knowing you care for me
and what I have to come home to will help me when I might need a
confidence boost; and it's going to be that confidence that will help
me when some skeeve is choosing his (or her, or their) victim.
If something bad happens, its got nothing to do with the trip. Bad things just happen sometime. Don't let it make you believe I wasn't safe or that the world isn't safe.
