Meet Olivia Ebrotié | Solo traveling in a pandemic

We had the good fortune of connecting with Olivia Ebrotié and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Olivia, how has your background shaped the person you are today?
I’m from The Ivory Coast, a west African country where I spent my teenage years, as well as childhood life. After graduating from high school, I decided to study in Texas with the help of my parents where I’m studying philosophy. Due to the recent global pandemic and my inability to visit my parents back home, I decided to start my journey as a female solo traveler in this crisis. I feel like my journey as a solo traveler started when I felt my home country and traveled alone to the United States without knowing the language which was extremely challenging at first. As the first born and only girl in my family, I was always encouraged to follow my dreams and accomplish everything I wanted. I’m grateful to my parents that never let anyone tell me that I wasn’t capable of anything because of my gender. Therefore, traveling in the United States is a way for me to not only learn how to step outside my comfort zone but also give me the time to focus my upcoming projects. Today, I’m free and happy to choose my own route and explore as much as possible and help other people who are trying to do the same.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Solo traveling was pretty much admired before the pandemic but today it has some type of stigma that lead people to become extremely moralistic on how you should lead your travels or not. There is a constant fear that solo travelers are contributing to the endless survival of Covid and that we shouldn’t travel and stay home. Even though, I completely understand this fear knowing the number of cases in the country, I can assure them that no establishment will receive us if we don’t follow the restrictions that will keep us and people around us safe. Documenting my journey on social media made me realize how easy people can try to belittle your accomplishments and destroy your mental health with unsolicited comments on everything that compose me and everything I want to accomplish. However, I realized that those people wouldn’t have anything to say if I wasn’t happy with myself and what I do. I’m encouraging anyone to focus on their dreams and follow them with no regrets because at the end of the day haters gonna hate.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Knowing that’s it’s Spring I can’t be a good friend if we are not going for a picnic so our first stop will be at the Farmers branch market to select some beautiful fruits and vegetables locally made and heading to the Farmers branch Rose garden. I personally love small places like that where you can see all those beautiful flowers and bees around them which is perfect for a picnic. If not, we can experience a breakfast or lunch cruise with Gondola Adventures for some privacy. We can continue our excursion by exploring downtown Dallas and discover the cool murals and architectures like the Chapel of Thanksgiving and finish the day at the Reunion Tower for its beautiful view at night.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I couldn’t travel and documents my journey without all the wonderful photographers that I met and worked with as well as my parents who had a tremendous impact on the way I see the world and my desire to explore it.

Instagram: @_atomoli

Image Credits
Leef Photography LLC                                                                              Irazema Photography @irazema_photography