After a year spent in Australia, it’s time for going home.
Going home is a very strange feeling that anyone who has traveled for long will understand
Your brain is filled with a contradictory emotions mix :
- So happy and looking forward to seing relatives that you missed you much
- To find comfort again
- But at the same time this FEAR of the life that awaits us when back, this FEAR to have changed too much, this FEAR to feel a bit misunderstood by those who have not experienced this year in the same way as you did.
A year of travelling is much longer than a year. Time loses its meaning, and expands to make room for all the experiences we live, all the people we meet.
It is a rich year, a mix of experiences where you learn more than ever about life, about yourself and others.
Of course we change, we evolve, we question our principles, values, ways of thinking…
I’m shaking when writing.
Travelling is a true mind exercise. Everything we were confident about before, every future plans, life desires, are challenged and you come back a little messed up. Your head full of projects far from those you had before you left.
you come back different, reformatted
And you don’t know what words to put on this phenomenon to explain it to others : why did you change? How did you change?
You just lived “this”, met “such” discussed “this” with “another such”, you thought for hours alone with the sea and your notebook, and all this is what explains your change, deep and subtle. Because in the end, you’re of course still the same person.
But maybe a better version!
So yes, it’s a little scary to return to the world that we left because we do not know how it has changed and how much the rehabilitation will be difficult.
I read a great article on a blog, a young traveler (On the blog “Travel ect”), that I will quote because her article really moved me. She was already back when writing his article, but it shows that every traveller who is back is facing the same problems :
Here are her words (translated in english):
Traveling for long is:
– Leaving the routine and take time to live
– Say goodbye to your principles, be alone with yourself and push your limits every day
– See your life reduced to a backpack weighing 15 to 20kg and feel happy to live without anything extra
– Have a mini-tight daily budget, live by the motto “win nothing, spend (almost) nothing,” out of this mass consumption
– Sleeping in cheap hostels, often in noisy dormitories with no privacy, take showers in dubious cleanliness bathroom and cope with all that without any problem
– Spending many nights in trains or buses without comfort, be exhausted on arrival but think that it’s part of the fun
– Pay attention to what (and who) is around you and open yourself the outside, break down barriers of individualism and intolerance
– Meet everyday the generosity of the world, live beautiful moments of life with locals and wonder “Is this what I would have done at home with strangers? “And think that, probably no.
– Get back to basics and realize that we have never been so happy with this vital minimum
– Spotting scams, live 15 lives in one and adapt to all situations
– Falling asleep happy and looking forward to be the next day
– Get up happy and looking forward to start your day
Return is Lost in translation
(I deleted some parts replaced by […] because I found them a bit “too much” and not adapted to what I think)
When you have lived all this and much more, come back to your former life can be hard.
Once seing your friends & family again, and this euphoria phase finished : Welcome to Lost in translation in your home country.
Here are some situations you unfortunately must face:
– Go into a store, feel assaulted by the noise, the lights, the crowd and get out in a minute in tears, disgusted by the “too much”
– Getting into the subway, feel disoriented, face human stupidity and intolerance
– Ask something to people in the street and agree with foreigners when they say that France is one of the least hospitable country in the world
– Face negativity and anxiety of the French people
– Have the impression of being an alien who talks philosophy of life
– Have different perspectives of life and realize : that bothers
– To be told repeatedly that we are “lucky” to have made such a beautiful trip and repeat than “courageous” would be more appropriate
– Have simple expectations of life and feel they are treated as a lack of ambition rather than a simple search for happiness
– Be aware (even more than during his trip) that the poorest are ultimately richer
[…]
– Coming home after a party and feel that you didn’t belong there
[…]
– Face the intense stress of other’s daily life and do not understand why all this stress
[…]”
How i feel : Yes, it makes me a little anxious, this return
Well, I relativize a little. She says of course after that, that her family and friends are obviously not included in there, and that it was a joy to see them and spend time with them.
I also have many people that count in my heart and that I look forward to seeing, with whom I am eager to share, and with whom I know I would feel understood.
I think and I hope that I will handle my return better, because I am lucky to be surrounded by great people. But I think for the rest (in the street, in shops), I may feel like her a bit.
I also think that as new projects flourish, it feels busy with something else and return softened.
My head empty, but filled with projects at once
We have no time limit, the obligations to keep deadlines when it comes to managing our life. It is not required, either at 25 or 35 years, to put pressure on yourself and say “I have to find my way until I retire” (we do not even know if we will, anyway, or if we will be still alive or still in France when the time will came…).
At any age, you can change your life, change your mind. You just need to understand and remember that we are born, we die, and what happens between the two belongs only to us, nothing and no one can dictate how we LIVE.
EVERYTHING is possible.
Super looking forward to seeing everyone <3