Boyyyy this post's been a long time coming. I don't really know where to start to be honest because SO much has happened since I returned home from my 6 week trip to the USA and Canada in mid June. For someone who's been travelling for the best part of a year, it might come as a surprise to see me finally settling down and randomly moving to another part of the UK (more about that in my next post). But I guess I'll start from the beginning.
As much as I love travelling, I knew before my trip to America that I didn't want to do it full time anymore. I knew I didn't want to go back to Australia, but there was nothing stopping me from saving for a flight to New Zealand and going there on a Working Holiday Visa if I wanted to. If I was that desperate to continue travelling, that's 100% what I would have done. But being back home for 3 months changed my mindset completely. It wasn't that I wanted to quit travelling altogether - that's not even an option for me - but I knew something wasn't making me happy and I finally figured out what it was (with the help of mother dearest). Whilst being away was amazing and the best experience ever, coming home was the issue. The sadness and almost depression that followed. I was never settled at home, and that's not something I could deal with forever.
When your life isn't based in the UK, it makes coming home really hard. You have no job, nothing to keep you occupied, no income, you still live with your parents and your friends live hours away because you haven't built up a network of people around you. Whilst some of those issues were eradicated when I got my old job back at the hospice, the others were still making me unhappy. It wasn't that these things couldn't be fixed (of course it's easy to move out and make friends if you really want to), but if I continued to travel full time, I would continue to have these problems every single time I came home. It was a question of: I'll have to restart my life in the UK eventually, so do I really want to keep delaying it? I knew I'd still be able to visit the places I wanted during 5 weeks annual leave, so I could essentially have the best of both worlds if I decided to settle down. I could finally have the lifestyle I wanted in the UK without sabotaging myself by going away all the time. So that's what I decided to do.
Aside from feeling unsettled at home, another reason for wanting to give up full time travel was because I just didn't have the energy for it anymore. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this on a post before (it's been that long since I've blogged so who knows!), but the excitement I used to have for trips had pretty much disappeared and everything started to feel like a chore and a hassle. I've watched a few videos on people who felt the same after being on the road for a long time (albeit a lot longer than I was), but essentially the novelty wears off and you don't find it as fun anymore.
I used to LOVE getting up early for flights, travelling to the airport and spending hours walking around before boarding. I used to enjoy being on the move every few days, lugging my backpack from one place to another and relying on an array of ubers, buses and taxis to get me to my hostel. I used to love meeting people in hostels and making conversation as soon as they walked through the door. But like everything in life... when things become 'the norm', they become boring. Even the night before my trip to Copenhagen in April, I was seriously pissed off that I had to drive down South for the airport, even though I chose to fly from London cause it was cheaper. Before my flight to America, I can remember sitting in the airport hating every single minute of it, wishing I was anywhere but the airport. The thought of having to 'travel' anywhere put me in a ridiculously bad mood. I guess it's something you won't understand if you go on holiday twice a year and the whole process is mega exciting, but for me, I was 100% over it. I couldn't wait to just NOT travel.
Despite not being overly excited for America (of course I wanted to go, it was just the build up beforehand that put a dampener on it for me), I still went and had THE most amazing time. Like ever. That trip is going to be seriously hard to top and I don't regret it for a second. But by the end of it, I was definitely ready to come home and start putting things in place to start my 'new' life, so to speak, in the UK. Plus I never wanted to see, or pack, a suitcase ever again (okay maybe not ever, but it's definitely on pause for a while!).
So... DAY 1 back in England and I was already on the job hunt. I've decided to save the details for another post cause I've already been rambling for ages, but as the title suggests, I did get a job and I am moving out. It's all happened very fast and there's lots to tell, so I'll get to it ASAP and it should be on the blog soon. But yeah, very exciting times ahead!
Speak soon
xxx
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