Travel means a lot for us. It is not just a hobby, it is not just a vacation. It is about exploring our planet and changing our perspective on life. We are all inhabitants on this planet that is so unique in our universe. There are so many different climates and people have been able to live almost everywhere. Vast deserts, mountains, jungles, arctic places. Our planet is amazing and what humans have achieved in just a few thousands of years is quite incredible.
If we look at our short life and compare it to nature, we realize that we are just a tiny tiny part of everything. There are animal and plant species that have been living here for millions of years. The Himalayas were created about 50 millions of years ago! And we don’t even have 100 years in our lifetime.
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So we don’t want to sit on one spot and throw away the opportunity to see the world. We were so lucky to be born in a great part of the world.
Many people say that travel changes you. It may be true. You don’t know before you try, right? When you travel you meet new cultures and different people every day. You are discovering new views on life constantly. And that probably changes you, especially if you do it for longer periods. We decided to share with you our thoughts and feelings from backpacking. Maybe you know them too or you are just curious what happens when you go traveling and then you come home.
You become less materialistic
You spend a long time with a few essential things in your backpack and you realize you don’t actually need more. Life is simple. It is so easy to pick between four T-shirts, when three of them are dirty. After coming home, you stand in front of your closet asking yourself why you have so many clothes. You stop shopping. You stop actually caring about material possessions in general. You lived too long in your traveling universe where value is measured in experience. Always new, always exciting. Buying a new dress or a car can’t really compare to that now.
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You become more thankful
You are thankful for what you have in your life, because you have seen so many people who are not so privileged. You realize it is not just automatic. You start to appreciate small things like tap drinking water or a hot shower.
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You become more patient
You get used to waiting. Minibuses leave when they are full. When? Nobody knows. Time can be so relative. Waiting for someone for “five minutes” could mean 30 minutes in one country, it could be an hour somewhere else. Who cares?
You become shocked after, coming home, you watch people in a supermarket getting crazy mad after waiting in the line for more than 3 minutes.
You realize that most people are good
People are the same everywhere in the world. We all want the same thing – to be happy. It doesn’t really matter what language, religion or culture. The world is not a scary place like the media tells you. The world is an awesome and beautiful place. Sure, you can get killed anywhere. If you have bad luck, it can be in front of your house. You don’t know that.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQff9_7BRu6/?taken-by=travel.enjoy.live&hl=en
You hate routine now
After being free for a long time, it is incredibly boring and frustrating to get back to a certain routine. When you compare your three months of life at home working with three moths in Southeast Asia, you want to either end it all now… or buy a flight ticket to a place far away.
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You are happy to come home, but…
It is great to see your family and friends again. It calms you down, nothing has changed. But wait, you have been gone for 6 months, even a year, and NOTHING HAS CHANGED! Nobody cares that your biggest life event was visiting a hill tribe in Southeast Asia. People have other “real” problems and they can’t really relate to you now. You start every sentence with: “When we were in……” and nobody is interested, to be honest. If they are interested, they ask you what was your favorite country, so you have to make it up, because I am afraid there is no such a thing…
You have left tiny parts of yourself in all the places you visited, so you can’t feel the same as before. There is a small seed inside of you that grows and you can’t stop it.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BP7jFr3BMDq/?taken-by=travel.enjoy.live&hl=en
They call it a travel bug, but I don’t like bugs in my body, so I don’t call it that. There is also a scientific name – post travel depression. That is quite common for backpackers coming home from exotic countries. To the country where they grew up and where everybody speaks their language, but they still feel like foreigners there.
There is no doubt that traveling affects people, both in positive and negative way, I guess. And yes there is also one more thing that comes with traveling, and that is craving for more…
How has travelling affected your life? How do you deal with the post-travel blues? We want to know. Share your stories with us, and you could see your work getting published right here on six-two. Find out more here.