I’ve been catching up with old friends over the last few weeks – this after being away from the Bay for nearly two years (excluding Christmas holidays). It feels like home here, and at the same time, it doesn’t. Perspective changes you. The more you see, the more you want to see. The voracious appetite to learn, to discover, to live each day with moments of surprise novelty can’t easily be quenched. It’s an appetite that feeds itself; it is a taste of the unknown that becomes sweeter by the day. I realized months ago that if I really want to spend some extended time traveling, learning about myself, and figuring out a business or venture, the time to do so is now. Not when I have a mortgage, or kids, or commitments to a husband that I can’t shake. It’s now.
And so here I am. And what a blessing it has been. To have the freedom (financially and personally) to take some time to carve my days as I please – with no obligations, or schedules or responsibilities. It is something that I am thankful for every single day.
A friend asked me if I ever get tired of living out of a suitcase. I’d have to say no. Not yet, anyway. But there are aspects of the vagabond life that have driven me a little mad. Having no real base (yet) makes it hard to sort credit card billing, health care, wardrobes! It is an organizational nightmare trying to stretch your life across three continents. Over the last few months, I’ve had to learn how to live the mobile life very quickly. Here are a few tips on how to survive the feeling of displacement:
- Put your credit card company on speed-dial. Call your credit card company ahead of time when you are traveling. I’ve forgotten to do this several times and have ended up locked out of my credit and debit accounts while abroad. List every country you will be visiting over the next six months and be explicit about the time frames. This will save you many headaches on the road.
- Live lightly. Boy, was this a hard lesson to learn. Nobody needs 40 pairs of shoes! Especially when you’re living abroad temporarily. Do you know how expensive it is to ship 40 pairs of shoes (plus clothes, plus purses, plus books, plus little pretty lamps that you bought in China during that one trip in November, and oh! those pretty ceramic dishes from Spain…) transatlantic? It’s just STUFF and all of this STUFF will very quickly come back to haunt you when you decide on a whim to move to South America for a few months. I wish I’d lived like a minimalist during my entire stay in London. It would have saved a lot of time and money during my move and could be saving me the headache of trying to figure out where I’m going to put the shipments that will be arriving on our doorstep at any minute (4 boxes worth, at that!).
- Travel in spurts. I think the reason that I’m still so open to traveling (after 3 months of being on the road) is because I’ve done it segments. I didn’t decide to pack a backpack for the year to disappear into 16 different countries all at once. There was Africa for three weeks, then break, then Italy for three weeks, then break, then home for 4 weeks, then break, then Argentina for seven weeks… etc. It enables me to reconnect with precious family and friends, sort things like health insurance and banking, and gives me the chance to properly do laundry (interesting fact: if you hand-wash your clothes in random sinks in third world countries, no matter how many times you do it, they will never really be clean).
- Go get a Google Voice account (it’s free!). It will change your life (OK, I’m exaggerating. But its’ great). You basically have one phone number. Forever. And you can use Google Voice to forward calls from that number to any other number that you choose. I just got a temporary SIM card (with ridiculous pay-as-you-go calling rates) but I give out my Google Voice number and just forward calls to the SIM because I know that I won’t be using it for very long. When I get a proper phone plan, I’ll forward to that instead. Google Voice will also let you receive and reply to text messages via email, and will enable you to make long distance calls for cheap. It is great if you don’t have a permanent phone just yet.
- Go for quality, not quantity. If you’re going to purchase clothing (especially for travel), buy few pieces that are of good quality. Seven lacy tank tops from Forever 21 will be of no use in the boiling heat of African days and the equally cold nights. Buy proper cotton from reputable brands like Kathmandu or The North Face. It will save you from lugging around disposable, colourful party clothes that you will never wear.
- Know what inspires you, and bring it along. This can be your music, a book, a person, a favourite journal. There will be lonely days on trains and quiet evenings in trying to sit out a storm. Be sure that you take along a muse, a token of inspiration that will get you through the not-so-fun times. It will be a godsend. My saving graces: piano music by Jim Brickman, hoochie music by the Pussycat dolls, my Moleskine notebook, my wifi enabled phone.
- Hire your Mom as your personal assistant. If you’re lucky enough to have a superstar Mom like me, you’ll know that as your personal assistant she will: email urgent notices about bills, pay insurance when you forget, remind you to take your vitamins so you don’t get sick, call the doctor to set up a last-minute appointment during the 8 hours you’ll be stopping over in town, send you a great big virtual hug when you’re feeling down, and remind you to take care of the hundred important things you will forget to do. I highly recommend hiring your Mom as your personal assistant. And in all likelihood, she will only demand that you pay her back in hugs.
- Be content, thankful, happy in the moment. My Dad always says that happiness is a state of mind. And it’s true. Sometimes (being the irrational and crazy people that we are), we have (even in the best of times) the-grass-is-always-greener moments where we just wish we were doing something else. I have moments when I crave having a house, cable TV, a gym membership in a neighbourhood that I’ll be in for more than just a few weeks. Sometimes I want to nest. And then I snap out of it. Because I know that I’m meant to be here now, doing what I’m doing, learning what I’m learning. That time (of homes and kids and gym memberships) will come, and probably sooner than I plan or expect (because life has a funny sense of humour that way). But for now, I am content and happy and SO SO THANKFUL for all that has happened so far and for all the possibilities that lie ahead. We only have this moment. Be happy and thankful and content in the now.
