Earlier than my first journey world wide, I used to be driving by way of Boston with my good friend Mike. I used to be speaking about how excited I used to be about my upcoming journey and the way I used to be trying ahead to seeing all of the adjustments that may occur in Boston whereas I used to be away.
The place would my mates be in life? How would they’ve modified? What jobs would they’ve? New hobbies? New relationships? What would the town be like?
The chances appeared infinite.
“Matt, the whole lot shall be precisely the way you left it,” he mentioned. “Look, once I studied overseas, I assumed the identical factor. However in fact, nothing shall be totally different whenever you come house. Every part and everybody would be the similar.”
“Rather a lot can occur in a 12 months, Mike.”
“I’m telling you, Matt,” he continued, “life shall be simply the best way you left it. You’ll see.”
After I got here again house eighteen months later, I noticed that he had been proper. Whereas I had modified, house hadn’t. My mates, now heading into their late twenties, nonetheless had the identical jobs, have been going to the identical bars, and have been principally doing the identical issues. They have been nonetheless the identical individuals I had left earlier than. Furthermore, Boston itself simply felt the identical. It had the identical vibe because it had had earlier than. There was nonetheless development all over the place, and the eating places have been nonetheless the identical.
Mike had been proper. Whereas I had grown, house had remained frozen in time.
And whereas I nonetheless beloved my mates, household, and metropolis, I noticed I didn’t match into Boston anymore. It felt small to me. I had outgrown residing there.
Nevertheless, the worst half was I now had this hearth in me that I couldn’t specific to anybody I knew. I yearned to attempt new issues, go new locations, and meet new individuals. However my mates couldn’t perceive why I used to be so depressed about being again. They didn’t wish to hear about my journey or all of the cool issues I did whereas that they had commuted to and from work.
To my dad and mom, it was like I used to be equivocating on my homeland. To my mates, it felt as if I used to be now “too cool” for them.
Nevertheless it wasn’t that.
As Benjamin Button mentioned, “It’s a humorous factor about comin’ house. Appears to be like the identical, smells the identical, feels the identical. You’ll understand what’s modified is you.”
After the preliminary pleasure of being house wore off, I had grow to be stressed. I had post-travel melancholy.
Returning house is difficult and few individuals deal with the truth that it’s usually an anticlimactic finish to a life-changing expertise.
After a 12 months of mind-blowing adventures, you‘re again the place you began — sitting on a sofa, again in your condominium or your outdated bed room, bored, anxious, and jittery. Your mates don’t perceive the brand new you, don’t wish to hear your tales, or don’t get why you are feeling so uncomfortable.
“What? You don’t prefer it right here anymore?” they’ll ask.
Nevertheless it’s not that you just don’t prefer it.
It’s simply that you just went from 100 to 0 quicker than you may course of.
You are feeling as should you got here again to the precise spot you left. You’ve gone from backpacking the world and trekking in jungles to sitting in a cubicle. One minute you’re your dream you, the following you’re the outdated one again in an workplace that yearned to be free. And you are feeling such as you by no means actually escaped your outdated life in any case.
And that’s miserable.
Anybody who has ever traveled the world has felt this.
After you come house, when the preliminary hugs are hugged out, the tales advised (to those that will pay attention), and the reunions over, many people discover that our true house is being surrounded by the unknown.
Each time a good friend comes house from touring, their first query to me is all the time, “How do you deal with post-travel melancholy?”
There isn’t a actual remedy for the post-trip blues. The one actual approach to recover from post-trip depressions is to remain busy. You discuss individuals on-line, go to meet-ups, or plan your subsequent journey. Preserve that power you had on the street going. Exit, sightsee in your individual city, take street journeys, discover a interest… do one thing. As a result of the extra you keep nonetheless, the more serious your melancholy shall be.
Nevertheless it solely ever fades as extra time passes. There’s no remedy apart from time. It’s like getting over a relationship. Positive, you may keep busy however it’s solely as time progresses that you just slowly start to maneuver on.
If you have been touring, you seen each second as an journey. View your life again house as one too. Keep busy. Keep energetic. Attempt new issues. Preserve that may do angle.
If you do this, house will really feel rather less suffocating.
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