One Is Not the Loneliest Number

Why we should challenge ourselves to travel alone

- Pamela Holt

AS I BROWSED greeting cards one day in my local store, I arrived at the numbered ones and noticed that every birthday card starting with "50" referred to "over the hill" and "old." I was turning 50 soon and those phrases are certainly not me. I feel young and vibrant-I'm just getting started.

When I turned 40, I traveled solo to Peru, where I walked for three days through the Salkantay Pass to Machu Picchu; flew deep into the Amazon to live with locals; and journeyed to Ecuador to explore the Galápagos Islands. If I could do that at 40 imagine what I could do now, at 50, with ten glorious years of gained experience, insight and independence. It feels liberating, and secretly a little powerful, to turn 50-it has cachet, street cred and the right to be a little sassy.