January 20, 2025
After the pandemic, I think basically everyone wanted to travel. I guess being cooped up so long really started to make people want to get the fuck out and really do something. I've certainly been no exception to that seemingly universal desire. Except I wanted to take it a step further.
I didn't really know what I wanted to do or where I wanted to go after I graduated college. I ended up getting a job close to where I lived at the time and commuted every day. That was alright with me, I suppose. It paid well. Even at that time, I really enjoyed traveling, so I was glad to be able to fund it. During my first year at that job from 2019-2020, I'd already taken one trip and planned a few more. Up until the pandemic hit, that is.
And then something special happened, although it took my quite a while longer and a good friend pointing it out to me to realize. You see, with the pandemic, everyone left the office. We were all sent home and told to work from home. I was able to do my full job from home, and there was simply no need to go in at all. Meetings were virtual, and everything I did was done from the computer. It seemed good to me. I got to skip the commute, which gave me more time back in the day. But I didn't have many prospects beyond that.
Now, my job at the time didn't let you work from literally anywhere. You had to work remotely from a short distance to the headquarters. Oh, and towards the tail end of the pandemic they started bringing people back. I didn't really like that. So, I went and got myself a new job, and was once again happily working remotely.
But, at some point, a good friend of mine made me understand something. Working remotely doesn't mean working from home. It means you could really just work anywhere. It's obvious, sure, but it's hard to describe who I was then. I just didn't see myself having an opportunity like that. I lived where I did just because it's where life brought me. I never took myself somewhere. You can just.. go. Fast forward a few months and we did go. I became a digital nomad.
For a long time I had no real purpose in life. I mostly floated from one milestone to the next. I went from school to college, then to a job. I wasn't particularly satisfied, but I didn't know what to do, or what having a purpose meant. But from the moment I got my first fully remote job, I knew my purpose was to be traveling. Not just traveling, but experiencing new things. I wanted to do everything. I wanted to experience all that I could possibly experience. I dined at amazing restaurants, visited historical monuments, did incredible tours, went whitewater rafting, hiking. Anything I could get my hands on. And it was incredible. I experienced more in two years than I had the whole rest of my life. Or at least, it felt like it. My life really did have a purpose, and it was traveling. I really want to stress that. Traveling really was my purpose, and I was fulfilled.
But, the funny thing about purpose and fulfillment is it's ethereal. It can be there one moment and gone the next, almost without warning. And while the travel was fulfilling for a long time and I had the absolute time of my life, it begins to lose its luster. Or, you begin to crave something. Something more. Then your travels and all that you do seems to seep with vapidity. It does not fill the longing void in your heart and soul. It does not nourish you, but only makes you hungrier, less satisfied. You once again feel that desire to do something with your life.
They say that most people who travel full time, like digital nomads, and running from something. I met a lot of other digital nomads where that was so obvious it hurt. Many traveled after a big break up, or as a way to cope with addiction to one substance or another. Other still traveled because they couldn't figure out what they wanted to do with their life. And at least travel can satisfy you for awhile until you hopefully figure it out in the end. I used to think I was the exception to the rule. That I wasn't running from anything. Travel was what I wanted to do and I was doing it. It was true to some extent, but looking back I'm sure I was running. It's true that I had had a bad breakup, and it's also true I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. I think it's more like purposelessness is always chasing you down. With travel, I outran it for a bit, but travel wears you down, and purposelessness begins to sink in when you least expect it.
You might be thinking a life of travel sounds amazing-- and it certainly is. I don't regret it even for a second. But, while traveling full time is incredible and life changing, it is also draining. There are things you'll miss that you never knew you would. Simple things, sometimes. Other times, more fundamental desires.
One of the most incredible things is also the hardest to deal with long-term: moving around regularly. I chose to switch locations monthly. For the most part, a month (4-ish weekends not working) is long enough to fully enjoy a decent sized city. You get a feel for the culture, and you get to hit almost every major tourist attraction, and probably some further away stuff. But that also means you're on a time limit. If you're three weeks in, you might not want to buy that condiment or ingredient. It'll just end up going to waste when you eventually need to leave. And you're constantly unpacking and repacking. Sometimes you won't even bother to fully unpack your suitcase. Or, you might not even have anywhere to hang everything.
That's another issue, really. Every time you travel to a new city you're going to be in a new place. And while sometimes you'll find an amazing place close to the ' center of the city for a reasonable price, sometimes you're gonna be living in a really shitty place. Or, a place without basic amenities you need (pots, pans, extra towels, blankets, anything really). You'll find some of these places just weren't meant for you to stay longer than just a few days there.
And what about a routine? You won't have one. Or, you'll have to change up your routine when you move each month. Traveling full time means you're constantly adjusting how you live. You'll need to find a new gym, find different grocery stores and coffee shops, navigate different streets, deal with different languages. Things will be constantly changing, and it will make it hard to really focus on things in your life. This is part of what makes traveling so good at distracting you from the important things in your life. You might not focus on your fundamental problems when you've got a litany of superficial ones to solve each month.
But all of these are really just minor inconveniences. While they will wear you down over time, it's easy to become resilient to them. More fundamental is the feeling of loneliness. If you choose to travel full time, you will probably feel the loneliest you have ever felt. When you're a thousand miles away from any friends or family and you don't know anyone where you're staying, you will wonder what you're doing. When you meet someone and become fast friends, but have to say goodbye in a week when they leave for somewhere new, you'll wish you could go with (but you're headed somewhere else in 3 weeks). At least if you can travel with a friend or a partner, you can help alleviate some of the loneliness. And you will always have friends you can talk to virtually. You won't always feel lonely, but it will get to you.
At some point, I stopped traveling. At least, I stayed in one place longer than a month or two. I guess you can call it a rest period. At least, it's some time that I don't have to worry about finding a new place to stay next month and navigating all new and different things. It's been a really nice break in a lot of ways, and I've made plans for my future and focused on my health.
But.. I've lately been feeling the itch to travel again. I plan to travel to Europe again for the latter half of the year, and I find myself incredibly excited. The reality is, traveling is incredible, and experiencing new things really is a big part of living. Traveling full-time may wear you down, but the time spent doing it makes everything worth it, at least for me. I would never caution someone against being a digital nomad because I know the difficulty of traveling, because I know the process is worth it. Just make sure you realize when you need to stop and take a break. Stop running. Let the purposelessness catch up with you, dig in its claws. Force you to do something with your life. You'll realize what you're missing and get to it.