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Attorney Elissa Niccum isn’t inclined to put life on hold.
The young California attorney is spontaneous and bold in her approach to experiencing life and she rejects any suggestion that she should wait for some imagined ideal time before venturing out to seek adventure.
“Life is short and we don’t always know that we’re going to meet the perfect partner in life or meet the perfect friends,” she says. “I want to see the world. There’s a lot of places to see.”
Even if at times it means packing up and heading out to see the world alone. Niccum says traveling alone has benefits beyond just the freedom to go and do whatever you want.
“I think it builds a confidence with learning who you are and learning to be comfortable with yourself and learning to be comfortable being alone,” she says.
Not long ago, for example, she took a three-day camping trip to Yosemite National Park by herself.
“I’ve been waiting for years to make a camping trip happen with people and I was like, why am I waiting?” she says. “I think we get so afraid of the horrible long list of things that could happen instead of saying here are the steps I’m going to take to stay safe and be smart and I’m going to do this.”
Her first solo trip was to Hawaii just last summer. She stayed in a hostel and made friends with fellow travelers. She discovered she particularly enjoyed striking up conversations with strangers and embraced the excitement of meeting interesting, new people.
“I still remember conversations I had at Stonehenge or Monet’s Gardens with totally random people that I’ll never see again,” she says. “They were friendly, nice interactions. That is something that is great about solo travel. You get to meet people and make these connections. And some of them can become lifelong friends.”
Which is exactly what happened when she went to Hawaii, where, incidentally, she also set aside a few days to take the Hawaiian Bar because, of course, why not?
“I thought I might as well do it while the information was still fresh,” Niccum says with a laugh.
During her days when she wasn’t taking the bar, though, Niccum became such good friends with a woman from Switzerland that this year she took a European trip to visit.
“I wouldn’t have met her if I’d gone with somebody else,” says Niccum. “When you go with people, you have people you’re comfortable with. There’s no incentive to talk with strangers and to put yourself out there.”
Born and raised in a suburb of Sacramento, Niccum was voracious reader as a child and perhaps a bit precocious. She first thought of becoming a lawyer in the third grade when she saw the 2001 movie “Legally Blonde” starring Reese Witherspoon as a fashionable sorority queen who gets into Harvard Law School where she excels.
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