I can't live from a place of fear

Kindness the world over has been the baseline of my experiences all over the world, but it's hard to combat that when the random acts of violence against women are highlighted more prominently in global media. I know that if something happens to me - and there is that chance - that it will likely be random, and it will be poor timing: wrong place, wrong time. And it could just as likely happen in the months I spend at home as in the places I visit.I can't live from a place of fear and so I travel with self-defined policies, agreements I have made with myself to lessen the chances that I put myself in risky situations.Life, and travel, is about constantly assessing a situation, making predictions, observations,Remove the old bulbs from the fixtures and make sure the electricity travel in xinjiang the mains to the whole fixture is turned off while doing so. and acting based on those assessments. Sometimes the assessments are off and I make a bad choice. But travelling has greatly increased my ability to size up a situation and a person and make an accurate judgment.

When I was in Belize I had a decision to make and I erred on the side of caution because it made me intensely uncomfortable to do something that some other travellers easily think is okay. I was at the Blue Hole, a very popular dive site off the coast of Belize, and I had planned, dreamt, of diving there for years. Once I arrived though, I didn't like the attitudes of the dive companies - many take down very novice divers even though it's a difficult dive.The thought of diving that deep made me nervous, and I just didn't think seeing the caves 43 metres below the water was worth the risk - I realised I didn't care enough about the experience to put myself on what I perceive was a risky dive. So I didn't. I wouldn't have stayed calm, and that could prove fatal in diving that deep, when there is no margin for error.Travelling is highly personal and what one person does, enjoys, or finds interesting another won't - and the same goes with risk. Find the travel experience that you think fits you personally and that makes you excited to travel and go do that!