Last week in my Wednesday Write-up I wrote about the similarities between long-term travel and “real” life. A good blogger friend of mine, Jhanis at The Vanilla Housewife, posed a great question to me that spurred this post into fruition. (Make sure to check out her blog!)
She wrote. “I have a question. I am a very sentimental person and moving to the city took a lot of guts and I cried a lot. It was miserable the first few months and even until now. I still miss it back home. If the time comes for you guys to move on to the next destination, do you think it will be hard? Or would you be more excited to travel again.”I want to start off by saying that my personality type is one that I enjoy moving often. In fact I was raised in a family where moving every 2-3 years was common place, and no we were not a military family. We may have been in the same city for some of the moves, but our neighborhoods changed often. Until I was 16 years old, and now my parents have been living in the same house since then. I always enjoyed the chance to start anew, make new friends, and experience new places. I am a rambler and always get a bit unsettled if in a place over 2 years. So I guess you could say that I am not very sentimental about the places that I have lived.
I am sentimental about the people I have left behind though. I often think of my family and friends in all the places I have lived and visited with fondness, and yes, sometimes with sadness and longing to be nearer to them. I will say that technology has helped with that extremely. I am able to keep in touch much easier with Skype, FaceTime, Facebook, and other social networks. I feel a part of their lives still and I hope they feel a part of mine (because they are!).
To answer the question about it being hard to move to the next destination, yes it will be. In some ways, there are always difficulties in any type of move, whether we have been in a place a month or a year. I do get excited about traveling, but I will miss the friends that we have made. I get excited about trying new foods, but will miss some of the dishes I have loved here. I never feel miserable though, the next place is always enthralling to me. I feel more unsettled being settled than on the move.
I think that when we leave Thailand, it will be a bit harder because now Z is old enough to have some solid friendships as well. She has gotten used to new places and different faces during her short 3 years on this small world, but I know she will be sad to leave this time around and even more as she gets older. That will be really hard for me as well, I want her to always be happy. But realistically, that isn’t possible and I do feel that this lifestyle we are leading will help her in later years.
We will not travel forever, eventually we will have to take root somewhere, at least for a little longer time period. I feel nowhere near ready for that though. There is so much more of this amazing planet that we want to see.
I hope that answers the excellent question that Jhanis asked me. (Thanks Jhanis!) If you have any other questions about this, feel free to leave a comment. It may give me an idea for another post! Hmmmm…. Maybe I should have an “Ask Jenny at And Three To Go” post every so often. What do you think?
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