I never had the money or time to travel. But at 64, I'm done only seeing the world through photos and videos.
- I grew up living paycheck to paycheck and working my whole life, but I always dreamed of travel.
- At 64, a few years from retirement, I can afford to travel and I built up the courage to go alone.
I've dreamed of travel ever since my uncle gave me a subscription to National Geographic magazine for my 8th birthday.
I still remember flipping through beautiful photos of Antarctica and dreaming about one day seeing such a wondrous place with my own eyes.
But travel was never really in the cards for me. I grew up living paycheck to paycheck in a large family in a small Long Island town. I've been working since I was a kid, and I never even left North America.
But I decided that, at 64 years old, my dreams have been on hold for long enough.
I finally have the money and time to travel, even though I'm not retired yet (I still have about three more years until then). I started my bucket list, and I'm determined to check things off.
First up was my dream adventure to Antarctica.
I mustered up the courage to book a long solo cruise
A cruise seemed like the best way to visit Antarctica — it's generally more cost-effective than flying — so I booked one that embarked from Santiago, Chile, this past December.
It was my first time leaving North America, and I was petrified of heading to South America, alone, for 16 nights.
But I also knew that if I didn't overcome these fears, I would only see the world through pictures and videos. I'd be depriving myself of my life-long dreams.
Fortunately, I summoned the courage and boarded the plane for the long flight to Chile.
Seeing Antarctica was as incredible as I'd dreamed it'd be
The cruise itself was quite the journey.
I bundled up and tried to maintain composure as temperatures dropped, and we sailed through the notoriously rough and rocky Drake Passage.
I felt like I was in a movie as the ship approached Elephant Island, awed by the majestic snow-covered peaks and glaciers and the enormity of where I was swept over me.
As we continued toward the Antarctic Peninsula, we sailed past magnificent icebergs of various colors, shapes, and sizes — some as tall as a 20-story building.
We even passed a research station, where the inhabitants came out and waved to us travelers as we sailed by. From my balcony, I saw penguins, whales, birds, and other sea life.
While stopping at the Falkland Islands, I took an excursion to a penguin rookery and watched thousands of penguins walking on glaciers and diving into the ocean.
It was pure magic.
The experience bolstered my courage and deepened my desire to keep traveling
The trip was everything I thought it would be, and more.
It made me more confident that I could overcome some of my fears of traveling to foreign countries, especially doing so alone.
Next on my bucket list is visiting other places my 8-year-old self dreamed of seeing, like Norway and Iceland. Later this year, I'm flying to England to board another cruise for another long-awaited adventure.
Although it took decades to get here, I'm glad to finally be pursuing my travel dreams — now, there's no turning back.