(photo is just for fun… has nothing to do with the article)
I was sick of being a nomad. Every day I had to make the choice between work and actively experiencing the city I was in. I was staying with friends and in hotels for a few days at a time. The hotels were nice and my hosts were beyond gracious, but I was missing that element of having a “home base”. The wonders of the world were flying by my eyes so quickly that they blended together.
At the same time, the thought of staying in one place wasn’t appealing either. I felt like I had one foot on one boat and the other on another boat, and the boats were drifting apart.
Then I realized two things. First, that I had no obligation to do anything in particular. Just because I had been traveling for two years didn’t mean that I had to keep doing it. It’s my life and my path to choose.
Second, I thought back to why I became a nomad in the first place. It was because I wanted to untie myself from a single location and give myself more freedom to be wherever I wanted to be. Planning months ahead and pressuring myself to race around the globe had taken that freedom away.
The solution is simple: realize that no obligation exists. I had planned on going back to London in a few weeks, leaving a few days later for Berlin, then Ulan Bator, then Beijing, all by way of the Trans Siberian Railway. I may still do that, but I have other plans that are more exciting, and thus more likely to be chosen (hint – I’m doing a bunch of work to the RV).
This situation felt a lot like when I was about to drop out of school. I felt obligated to stay there, even though I no longer wanted to. The answer was the same: realize that it’s my life and I ought to spend it however I want.
What are you doing that started out fun/interesting/rewarding but is now an imaginary obligation?
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