When Travel isn’t just a Vacation
When people to a gap year or travel for months or years at a time, many people will see it as you going on vacation, taking a break from school or work.
I consider something more along the lines that you are going away for a week or two before going back to work. When I started traveling in 2013 I bought a one way ticket to Thailand not knowing where I was going to go or do at the time.
I had just come out of a bad period in my life where the door had been shut on my face countless time and I was feeling caught in a downward cycle of job interviewing that just left me at the edge barely able to survive.
I needed to get out of Toronto, of Canada I had to find myself after being stripped of all self worth over years of trial and error after finishing school again.
When months became years people would still me as being on vacation. It was as if my life was on pause while they continued on with their daily routine. I don’t know when it happened but at some point travel wasn’t something I was doing it became my lifestyle.
It became harder to want to go back to Canada because I knew how hard it would be to restart. I didn’t have a job when I left, I couldn’t find one and to go back now, in a competitive job market what realistic shot did I have of finding something that I wanted to do, not just a job.
I’ve talked about it with others who have been gone a long time and its as if your life is on pause to your family and friends. It isn’t and you know it but they it as not being real. It can’t be how you live your life, it isn’t a lifestyle or sustainable.
It may not be sustainable for many people but I’ve met a lot of digital nomads who continue to work remotely while they wander. I’ve been able to do it because of a lot of sacrifices and budgeting. I’ve stayed in just a few places and instead of just traveling I live there and stick to my budget like a boss.
I’ve had the same conversation with family about what I am doing multiple times because they don’t understand. They keep on telling me what I should be doing, what they want for me not what I want for myself.
I gave up a normal life, the 9 to 5 and I’ve embraced my wanderlust. It means I have freedom but over security when the reality, security is the illusion. By letting go of what they want for me I can find what I want for myself, I’ve been able to do things I could have never dreamed of and become a better person.
It isn’t easy, what happens if I get sick, what happens if I get hurt but if you are careful you can minimize those risks and see and do things many people in your life could never have imagined. Just being exposed to different people, cultures and countries.
I had to tell my family that although Canada would always be home, it isn’t where my future is. It is hard for them to understand how I could live out of a backpack for years instead of working somewhere in Canada.
When you are traveling, especially doing it solo you realize that you don’t need a lot. I don’t need a lot of stuff, I don’t need to have society validate my lifestyle, it’s OK if people don’t understand.
You have to live your life and for some people that is a family, a career and that is amazing but for other people at least for a time it may mean independent of a place so you can see what the world has to offer to forge who you seek to be. That’s where I am at and I am better for it and I just hope that my family can accept that even if they don’t agree or understand it.
