With more than a year gone by since the state of the world last permitted one of my spirited journeys abroad, I am braced by sudden nostalgia over the travel lifestyle of my twenties.
It is not so much the glimmering beach holidays that emerge to the surface now, though they have felt like my lifeline at times. Rather, it is the vivid impressions of the immersive experiences abroad that materialize in my mind’s eye.
Recognizing that it is a privilege to have travelled and lived abroad for half of my years while coming to be an adult, I feel a letter of gratitude is overdue. Travel, especially for months and years on end, goes deeper than the awe-inspiring sights, the stunning cultures and the eye-opening histories. Immersive travel is a wordless feeling that resonates deep inside, with the places and people we encounter forging the quiet growth of our minds and spirits.
A travel lifestyle is addictive not because of the lure of escape, an inability to decide or the refusal to go the “normal” route, though these factors surface at times. Immersive travel has a more powerful undercurrent that prompts us to face our deepest fears and desires in life. The personal growth that happens when you take a leap out of your comfort zone into foreign territory transforms you, especially when this faith is a repeated act.
The travel lifestyle propels us forward in unpredictable ways, confronting us with challenges we underestimated, yet needed. Stripped of our usual comforts and identifiers, we are exposed to the once-concealed realities of the world and ourselves.
New insights emerge in bursts, as well as gradually over time, forming a tapestry that reveals itself to us at some mysterious, external pace. So, too, we find inspirations we couldn’t have dreamed of in a limited environment.
The endless possibilities of the world
Each point in my travel history has played its unique role. Volunteering in Bolivia opened my eyes to the complexities of the world around me. Backpacking through Europe freed me to pursue my truths in the decade to come. Working in East Africa awakened me, and leaving everything behind for Southeast Asia drastically rerouted my course. Living in The Netherlands for two and a half years has profoundly challenged me, and rediscovering myself in Mauritius reignited my individual spark.
Exploring different corners of the world, over the past eight years, has led me to discover more of myself in the process: my strengths, my needs and basic humanity. Yet, like any knowledge worth pursuing, and as any humble student of the world would attest, the more you learn and grow, the more you initially realize you don’t know. I cannot shake this constant questioning that has been lit within me, and I carry it with me wherever I go.
I go looking for answers, but I am left with more questions. The endless possibilities of the world and my place in it both inspire and weigh me down. It feels like a breathtaking mountain I have only half treacherously climbed. What to make of this puzzling world? Where do I belong and will my search for something so intangible ever end?
Imbedded in the travel lifestyle is a beautiful contradiction. Home is everywhere and nowhere to me, all at the same time. I see these complexities reflected in the world itself, at once endlessly inviting and distressing. The suffering and beauty seems infinite, yet as one person, I’m only able to absorb so much.
Back home between travels, I wade through this strange gap between vastly different realities. Sometimes, I feel pulled into an emotional vortex that reaches me alone, while it appears that others remain unphased. It is a quiet transformation that unfolds within, and makes me want to point out: I’m not the same person anymore. There is so much more to this world I want to experience and share.
I shift towards a greater purpose
Lives move forward while I’m away, and equally so, I outgrow my past. Like the sands settling over time, who I am shifts towards a greater purpose. While it has yet to be wholly defined, even to myself, I have an inexplicable sense that I am tied to the state of the world, to the people and places I have encountered and those I have yet to meet.
Each time I travel feels like two steps forward, and each time I return or settle for too long feels like a sort of spiritual step back.
I have long prioritized the promise of new experiences and greater understanding over any linear path. So far, a predictable career or lifestyle has been forgone in the process. My insatiable hunger for living abroad seems not to favour traditional markers of stability or success. Each time I travel feels like two steps forward, and each time I return or settle for too long feels like a sort of spiritual step back.
At times, I want to get off this revolving carousel of living in different places and embrace some comfortable simplicity in life. Yet, to do so feels like abandoning my truest path. Where all of this leads is perhaps less important than what, and who, I am uncovering along the way. In truth, my greatest lessons and memories have come from this very journey, my purpose in a grand world untangling across its spheres.
This meandering lifestyle has blessed and confused me beyond compare. Immersive travel has the power to change us in ways we can’t understand at first. Its sharpest insights are unique to each, but its common themes inspire and connect all of us who understand this precious lifestyle. Maybe the time will come when I have absorbed everything I need from all it has to offer, or perhaps we can never evolve too much.
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image 1 Image by StockSnap from Pixabay 2 Image by piviso from Pixabay
