013. Solo Travel: winning the lottery

Slow Traveling Soul Sister

Episode 013 - Solo Travel - winning the lottery: where I discuss the latest rumor about my life.

The first weekend in October 2021, saw me, my BFF (best friend forever), and a good portion of my high school classmates together for our 40+1 reunion in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. It was a wonderful weekend and I won a prize (a neck pillow!) for traveling the furthest. I was surprised to learn that some of my classmates decided that I had won the lottery and that’s how I was able to travel to all those exotic and faraway places.

I thought it was a joke when I heard it the first time. However, this month, it was re-iterated by a high school friend that my life was actually discussed/debated several times throughout the last few years. I don’t know who took part in those debates – I didn’t ask – but it certainly wasn’t anyone who truly knew me.

If they had known me, or had asked my close friends, or had asked classmates who actually knew my family; they would’ve known the truth. #1: hard work, #2: no children (the day-to-day costs are astronomical), and #3: some early investments that paid off in the long run. Simple as that.

Why do we have to be reductionists about our successful friends? Why couldn’t I have just learned to do better financially, despite my upbringing? Nope. Either I found a rich man who set me up for life or money dropped out of the sky, or something else… anything else, except for the fact that I thought about the future as a 21 year-old young black woman and planned ahead. Seriously? My Mom, who would probably never leave “the Hill District” in Pittsburgh, but I definitely would’ve set her up in a nicer apartment, have her groceries delivered at least, and have her driven to the casino instead of her catching the bus in the snow and ice. Right? I guess not.

I’m not mad at my classmates, not at all. They are a small part of the whole reason why I wanted to get away. But I am disappointed. A lot of my classmates are successful – thank God – but while their dreams differed from mine, some of them assumed that I could not have traveled the world by myself for myself at my own expense.

Anyway… No lottery, no sugar daddies, or other ridiculous theories about my worth and worthiness should ever need to be discussed or spoken about again.
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The Slow Traveling Soul Sister podcast is sponsored and hosted by SelfishMe Travel.

Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, or join my travel agency email list. You can also email me at [e-mail] and/or check out my website.