Why you cannot appreciate one without the other

I used to think that “at home” was a dirty word. There – on the road – was there that life occurred, full of exciting adventures, fascinating people and endless possibilities. No dreary journey, 30-minute lunch breaks, mental lamblance meetings or endless tasks in a rushed weekend.

Why would you like to be at home, the place where the routine seemed to undermine your desire to exist? It confused me.

My first trip abroad – Holidays at Costa Rica – I made me fall in love with the trip. For all the reasons mentioned above, I realized why the “holidays” were so romanticized in the culture of work. There was a freedom for them which were contrasting strongly with the daily life of companies.

SO, When I finally left my jobI went on an adventure to discover that the whole world had to offer as long as I could make my money last.

I mean, who could get tired of Life on the road?

Well, me.

Finally, I made the tire to be a full -time nomad. I wanted a stable group of friends, regular training, a bar that knew my name, a kitchen to cook and my own bed.

Suddenly, I realized that the “house” was not a dirty word. It looked like this way towards an agitated young soul for which adulthood felt away.

I had come to understand what someone who has just come out with romantic notions on travel could not: you can exhaust yourself. During my first trip abroad, after 18 months, I hit the wall and decided to cut my short trip. Then, years later, in 2013, I decided that being nomad was no longer life for me and I decided to stop traveling full time.

It was time to grow, I said. It's time to stay there and go from nomad to … anything then.

But the attraction of the road – and the work of traveling – constantly fell to me.

Over the years, I lived between two worlds: one in which I travel, sucking at home and another in which I am at home, aspiring to leave again.

There were times when I wanted a clone to be able to live in both and satisfy my double desires.

After all, you can't – and shouldn't live only in one.

Because travel and house are complementary forces, Yin and Yang. Without one, you cannot appreciate the other.

All the travelers hit a wall, when they look around and I would say: “I'm ready to stay in the same place.” When and why it happens is the product of many factors, but I have not yet met a traveler who does not have this experience. When I started traveling in my twenties, it took me years to feel it. But now, a few older decades, it occurs after only a month.

To manage life, the brain creates mental shortcuts to help them process information. This is why we tend to drive the same route at work every day – it's just easier, and that's why you feel like “you can do it in your sleep”. Because if your brain had to find a new path to work every day, it would get tired. These routines let's put a lot of life on the automatic pilot, so we have energy for work, people, emotions, thoughts, etc.

But when you travel, you reappear life skills every day. You do not have mental shortcuts. It takes a lot of mental energy to understand your path in the world again every day, to recondition your bag, say goodbye to the person you met yesterday, and to leave and try to sail on land, languages ​​and unknown people as if you had never done it before.

It tires you.

While vacation is a temporary break in life, long -term trips are different. When you travel in the long term (or are in motion frequently), there is no break. You are constantly trying to understand things and constantly break your routine. Your travel battery flows.

However, in the same way, the travel battery must be recharged, our battery “at home” does it too.

While some people can follow the same routine in their lives, most of us cannot. We find it boring. We need a break. After a while in the same place, we aspire to break the monotony of our daily routine. Work, route, races … Day after day, like ants walking again and again.

So we're going to travel again. We have an adventure, meet new people, try new foods and we have new experiences. Perhaps be learning, growing and developing who we are as a person. Maybe we are absent for a week or two or take a month off. Or we are starting to work remotely and spend months. But finally, our battery flows: we are tired, then we go home.

And the cycle is repeated.

More and more made me believe that we can never fully appreciate the house or travel without the other. My first years on the road would never have been so incredible if I was not trying to free myself from a quarter of a century of routine. Likewise, my bed would never have felt so well if I had not spent so many years in moving, changing rooms and I took an erratic sleep. Nor would I have appreciated the relief that the routine brought if I had not spent so many days trying to sail in the stress of the world for so long.

The joy of one is amplified by the other.

The trip and the house are two sides to the same room. I appreciate everyone more now than when I was younger, because I can live both on my own conditions. I don't try to flee both or go to an extreme. I am simply on their flow and flow and let the battery of life dictate when one or the other occurs.

And I think it is a wisdom that only comes with age – and experience.