There are four design principles in this guide. Each one is a way of thinking about travel that meets you in the middle of change, not a roadmap to follow or a checklist to complete.

Here is the one that I feel strongest about.

Not Knowing is Enough

There's pressure that comes with transition. It's the pressure to have a plan and to be able to answer the question "so what are you going to do?" with something that sounds like progress. There is an expectation that you have a narrative about arriving at your next chapter that makes sense to other people.

Travel can feel the same way. Like you should know what you're looking for before you go. Like the trip needs a theme, an outcome, a return on investment.

But uncertainty isn't a problem to solve before you're allowed to book anything. Not knowing is a valid place to travel from. In fact, for women in the middle of transition, it might be the most honest place.

You don't need clarity before you go. You don't need to have figured out the next chapter. You don't need to come home with answers. Sometimes the most useful thing a trip can do is show you that you can be comfortable in the unknown for longer than you thought.


Reflection prompt: What would you do, or where would you go, if you stopped waiting for certainty first? What has uncertainty been quietly costing you?

A note from Tracy

I want to share why this principle sits at the centre of everything I've built in this guide.

Listen here

Inside the full guide: three more design principles, a three-phase travel framework for designing trips that hold the leaving, the messy middle, and the emerging, and three experiments to try at home or on the road.

I’m Ready