Nobody talks about coming back…

Nobody talks about the reverted travelling. The one that hurts the most, since your mind is still in the places you have visited but your body is back at your hometown.

Everything is the same, time doesn’t pass fast anymore. You feel unwelcomed and stack. Everyone wants to hear about your stories and adventures but you feel that you can’t communicate how much this trip influenced you, how much you changed mentally. You seem the same to them but your core is totally different.

Back again to your childhood bedroom , the stuffed animals look at you like you are the same kid ..
You look outside the window on a rainy day and you only wish to get back travelling.
You fill trapped but you don’t know why.
It’s so hard being back , your soul was dancing when you were away and now it doesn’t even remember the basic steps.

Oh how your heart was belonging to the faraway lands.
Where you met people so inspiring that opened up new dimensions for you.
Your passport is full of stamps and your heart full of love and belonging to all the people you met.

Yes you are the superstar for the very few weeks that you got back, but this fades away very quickly and it lets you empty like never before.
Everyone talks about travelling and its perks, but who talks about coming back?

I had a severe cultural shock when I came back after 4 months of backpacking in South America. I felt alone although surrounded by friends and family. Lost in my own hometown .
My heart was logging for new adventures, new places, new homes…
I couldn’t behave the same, I didn’t know the basics, like cooking, handling my laundry.
Leave me alone in the desert and I’ll find my way, but here being back it’s like I forgot all the social norms.

Who am I? where my life getting at ? what job should I search for? All these useless questions popped up again and I did not feel like searching for the answers.
I was daydreaming all the time, feeling alive when I was thinking about the incredible moments I lived.

You see the world, try new things, meet new people, fall in love, visit amazing places, learn about other cultures – then it’s all over.

The goodbyes are difficult, but you know they are coming, especially when you take the final step of purchasing your plane ticket home. All of these sad goodbyes are bolstered by the reunion with your family and friends you have pictured in your head since leaving in the first place.

The way your dreams have changed, they way you perceive people differently, the habits you’re happy you lost, the new things that are important to you. You want everyone
to recognize this and you want to share and discuss it, but there’s no way to describe the way your spirit evolves when you leave everything you know behind and force yourself to use your brain in a real capacity,

Once you’ve travelled for the first time all you want to do is leave again. They call it the travel bug, but really, it’s the effort to return to a place where you are surrounded by people who speak the same language as you. Not English or Spanish or Mandarin
or Portuguese, but that language where others know what it’s like to leave, change,
grow, experience, learn, then go home again and feel more lost in your hometown then you did in the most foreign place you visited.

This is the hardest part about traveling, and it’s the very reason why we all run away again.

Regardless of what geographical canvass you live your life in, one thing is constant –you will always be with yourself. That means that it’s not just about seeking the next big life-defining adventure in the backdrop of a new country or career path, but how

you are ok with just being around you, wherever you are and whoever you are with. In fact, the end goal of moving back home will be bracing the realities in your life that you tried to escape from – whether it is familial, career, relationship, monetary, etc.

Are you finally brave enough to face the fears back home that you tried to escape from? Do you want to start a new chapter in your life story? Because now its not about the setting anymore, but the plot that you want to develop.

The best part of traveling is being completely aware of the fact that for the first time since you were a child you are 100% living in the present. You are constantly excited about new things and constantly learning from everything around you, not just
information from school or from a book.

Your eyes are wide open and you are taking it all in. Think of your 20s – they will end. There will be a time in your life where you don’t
have as much energy and the desire to do unpredictable things and when you don’t have the free time you have now.

Your 20s will end. You will eventually have more
responsibility. Your retirement savings will become more important to you. So will homeownership. Taking time off to relax will trump taking time off to go do something fun. So in reality, your 20’s are little bit like traveling and it’s ok to treat
them as such – because one day I know I will be as nostalgic for my 20s.

Travel is all about change. You learn so much about yourself while on the road. It’s an introspective process that forces you to reflect on your life and who you are.

When you put on your headphones and tune out the rest of the world you start thinking about everything going on in your life and what you’d like to do differently when you get back home.

Travel forces you to slow down and to become still for a moment.
You put everything back at home on pause and learn not to worry about everything. These are the moments when we appreciate how amazing life truly is.
You’re trying new foods, possibly learning new languages, and meeting people from various places around the world.

Through these experiences you become more connected to the world in which we live and realize just how similar we are regardless of where we call home.