Six Months At Home-WD’s Thoughts
We have been home for a little over six months now. We are both back to work, back to a regular exercise routine, back to visiting friends. We have gotten our medical check-ups, dermatologist check-ups, and are fully insured once again. We go to the grocery store, mall, and out to eat just like before.
But things are really not the same.
I find that I have a harder time talking on the phone, after being away from it for so long. Before we left, this was a favorite past-time. I have trouble engaging in every day conversations, as I feel like I am not connecting with what has been going on with movies and music and celebrities.
I am feeling the tug of my backpack, but also feeling the tug of life at home. We re-tiled our bathroom floors. We are putting in new kitchen cabinets. My dog Hachi looks at me from his perch at my feet. We are settled back into this life, but I can’t help but long for the life I left.
I was free to go where I wanted, when I wanted. I ate new foods. I met new people. I had the opportunity of a lifetime to experience different cultures, practice new languages, and just wander this earth in general with experience after experience, good or bad.
I feel depressed at times, because no one really understands, and I cannot explain the experiences in a soundbite. At the same time, I chide myself for feeling like this, as I had an experience that not many people get in their lifetime.
I was lucky. Very very lucky.
Would I do it again? Would I leave my house, friends, and family, and hit the road again to see the world?
Tomorrow. I would leave tomorrow.
But I wish I could share the experiences better. Explain to you what it smells like to walk down any street in Asia, with the street cart vendors cooking noodle dishes. Have you feel the stares of locals on you as you sit in a train station, not sure what to make of your light skin or tall husband. Taste the chai of a store owner as you discuss the weather while you bargain for their wares. Experience the hospitality of total strangers, when you are a stranger in their land. Wake up on foreign soil with nothing ahead of you but what that country has to offer, and all the time you want to experience it.
I wish I could do that in this blog. I wish I could do it over the phone! But I sit here lost for words, while the trip swims in and out of my vision constantly.
I may no longer wander, but I am still Wandering Dawn at heart.
Megan said:
Well said. We just returned home (about two weeks ago) from a year on the road. We were so excited to come home, and the transition has been fairly smooth (we’re still in the honeymoon phase, though). Despite that, we still talk all time about heading back out. I can definitely relate to the phone/conversation thing–I can’t focus as well on random discussion and then I get impatient, both with the conversation and myself. Glad to hear that’s not just me.
Thanks for sharing your experiences of transitioning home. Even if it has been challenging to share your experiences in person or on the phone, you guys always do a great job here on the blog!
Warren Talbot said:
Dawn, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and emotions. It is great to be able to peer into the lives of those who have gone before us to help us prepare for a life after we return from a few years on the road. We have not even left yet, but already I worry about the impact of our return.
Please keep us all up to date on the progress of your re-entry as it is wonderful to learn from you all and to get to know you both a little more with each post. If you are in Seattle in the next 339 days, please let us know and we will show you all the town.
Gillian said:
Great update Dawn. I found, before we left, it was difficult to talk to people about our plans too as they could not relate to such a big change…I can’t imagine yet what it will be like once we return.
Kate said:
I was only gone 3 months but found the transition back to the hardest part. You are richer for having gone - and the rest will come.
Brian said:
At least you have Sean to talk to about your experience. You didn’t do it alone. And being home isn’t all that bad. Enjoy the positive things. Hachi, Pewter, family, friends, US Weekly.
I’m very excited that you chose a picture of the Grand Canyon, even though you have been all over the world. And I think that’s my cooler next to you. Sweet!
CJ said:
I wish I understood…
I wish I could pack a bag and go with you tomorrow, I wish it was easier.
Thank you for sharing.
WanderingSean said:
Hey Beautiful Wife,
I don’t think you realize it, but you posted this on the exact day we left for “The Trip” two years ago. Coincidence? Me thinks not.
Trust the world with give us what we need when we need it. I’ll be with you all the way on our next adventure, the rest of our crazy lives that is.
Thank you for doing this with me. I love you.
No longer wandering but still learning,
Sean
Theresa said:
Beautifully put. We’ve just been home over three weeks, and the impact of being home to stay has just hit me. It’s hard. For the first three weeks we were moving around a lot so it still felt like travel. Now we’re in the place where we plan to stay a few years, we’re looking at houses…and everything feels so permanent and I’m afraid a bit boring. I understand your feeling of disconnect. It’s odd but I think for the first time in a year I feel lonely. You’d think that would happen when we were far away, but I think it’s more poignant here because I am back. For one we’re in a new city so still far from our friends and family though it seems they should be close, and for two there’s a disconnect of experiences. I was hoping you’d say that after 6 months it was all A-okay, but I guess I knew that’s not what you’d say. Even though I can’t pinpoint exactly how, we’ve been changed.
Claire (Travel Funny Travel Light) said:
Awesome post. Although I did not take a RTW, I have found the time and resources to travel extensively off and on for the last 3-4 years. As soon as I took that first big 3 month trip, I was hooked. I came back ready to go again, finding it difficult to relate to life at home, particularly in oft-isolated West Virginia. I have kept the urges at bay by taking frequent trips, even if they are closer to home. More recently, I have just gotten married and am wondering how this will impact my future travels-at least in the immediate financial future. Without travel, of any kind near or far, I am just not me. I think often of those sweet memories learning Spanish in Guatemala or just hanging out in Bangladesh. Awesome times and I have been blessed, even if I would never take another trip! (Let’s sincerely hope that happens though!)