Susanne: Choosing a Life Outside the Expected Path

Susanne has spent more than a decade traveling solo, from her first trip to Thailand after a breakup to months moving through Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia at 41. We talk about what changes when you keep traveling while everyone around you seems to be settling down.

Susanne did not set out to build an unconventional life. She simply chose to leave when a relationship ended, and discovered that traveling alone could give her something she had not expected: a clearer sense of who she was outside of a relationship. In this conversation, she reflects on what she learned from that first trip and why she still chooses to follow her own path years later.

We talk about the realities of traveling alone as a woman over 40. Making friends gets harder. Dating does not always mean finding connection. And being a single woman in Malaysia can come with questions, assumptions, and situations that force you to become clearer about your boundaries.

We also talk about loneliness, intuition, and the pressure to have a partner, children, a home and a settled life by a certain age. Susanne explains why she no longer feels the need to have everything figured out, and why getting older has made her more certain that there is no single way to build a life.