Read time: 5 minutes
TLDR:
- Travelling long term can be exhausting so make sure to schedule in days to be a blob and do nothing
- Sharing your difficulties with others is an excellent way to connect and learn from others’ experiences
Intro Blurb:
Well Hydie Hoe Readers! It’s been a while hasn’t it? Funny how this blog started off as “Woot! ADHD Awareness! Learn from my experiences! Sunshine! Rainbows!” …And has now turned into the place where I share self-development adventures. Funny how life works out no?
To put it simply, I haven’t blogged recently because I’ve been in a bit of a rut. Lacking motivation and feeling a little blue. To explain how I got here though, I think some brief context might be helpful.
“The Good Girl” and Going Travelling
I spent a lot of my childhood and 20s being “The Good Girl”. I achieved straight A’s through high school, was in multiple different clubs, went to an excellent university and had been working as a pharmacist for the past 5 years. At some point though, I became frustrated and envious of those who had travelled the world in their 20s. They seemed more confident, more worldly and knew themselves better. I wanted that for myself so I quit my job to travel solo for the next 6 months and give myself ultimate freedom. I’d make my own decisions, choose where I wanted to go, and what I wanted to do.
It was amazing. I left on July 7th, 2023 and saw 10 different countries, experienced major tourist attractions and met people from all parts of the world.
Travel Exhaustion:
Skip forward 3 months and I noticed that I began struggling to get out of the hostel. I had little motivation to do anything whether it be to explore touristy sights, go on walking tours or even get out of my hostel room. All I wanted to do was stare off into space or be alone behind the curtains of my bed. I even thought about going home (quite hard for me to think about since I wasn’t interested in my old life). At first I thought I was depressed, but now I think I was just slowly burning out.
Sounds funny right? I had complete freedom to do exactly what I wanted. I wasn’t working and I had the savings to travel to any country, staying where I wanted to stay and eating what I wanted to eat.
Why the Exhaustion?
I think it’s a combination of several factors:
– The exhaustion of solo travelling (making all your own decisions – what to do for the day, where to stay, how to get to your next destination, what bus to catch etc.)
– My ongoing self development journey
– The remnant burnout of holding down a life I wasn’t happy with
How I Realized I was Exhausted?
Luckily I met several people in my hostel and felt comfortable sharing my troubles with them. They said they had similar experiences of long term travel exhaustion and helped me acknowledge that this occurs for many people. Their suggestion: find a place to be for more than a couple weeks and establish a routine. I could go into the importance of a routine now, but I’ll save that for another post.
Why do I think it’s important to share this?
Many reasons, but mostly because I think it’s important to share that my life isn’t perfect and also that I wouldn’t be where I am now (getting out of my rut) if I wasn’t honest. It’s really easy to look on Instagram or TikTok and see that others have this perfect-looking life and not wanting to share one’s own challenges. The truth is though that we all go through difficulties and by sharing them we are better able to get out of the rut. Now that I think about it, if I didn’t share my dilemma with others, I might still be wondering why I wasn’t enjoying what was meant to be the “time of my life”.
That’s it for now, but my biggest takeaways from this are:
– Factor in “Blob Days” while travelling long term: days to just laze about and do nothing
– Try to be vulnerable: sharing my challenges helped me gain insight from others
Love,
T
World of Wandering Minds 