Welcome back to our Travel Tuesdays! Edition three is a little different…a reminder almost. This week’s edition is all about home. As much as travel is amazing, there are things to be remembered about the home that created us, helped us to be who we are, and will always be ready to accept us back with open arms. Home looks different for everyone. For some, school may be a home away from home and offer the same comforts, others may picture their childhood home or the house where their parents live now. Sometimes it may just be a cat, or maybe a friend or roommate or significant other. Whatever home looks like to you, we can all imagine that feeling. Home is where the heart is, we all know the cliché. Sometimes when traveling long term, there are comforts lost for so long that when we have them back, they come with a different gratitude. That’s what our focus is today! Traveling allows us to explore the coolest parts of the world and experience new things but there is a loneliness to doing it by yourself, like I do. I find myself talking to my cat wishing I would hear some words back instead of a little meow. In just one month out alone without visiting friends along the way, I found out how lonely that can be. This edition, not only will I touch on how I combat loneliness and lack of motivation that can stem, but also my favorite place in the world to stay. Combatting that lack of motivationLoneliness has effects on travel that I never foresaw coming. I found myself having a lack of motivation to keep traveling. I wondered what I was doing sometimes or found myself making decisions to go places or spending gas money I shouldn’t be. That didn’t make my traveling any less rewarding or fun, but I just kept second guessing myself. There isn’t anyone else to ask to help make these choices. No one to fight me on sleeping in the Bass Pro Shop for another night or to stop be from driving 14 hours in one day. Sometimes I found myself making excuses to not go out and camp in a certain spot or go somewhere I previously thought was going to make the go-to list. I had no reason not too; I just didn’t know. My lack of intention behind what I was doing bothered me and I found the only way to get out of it was to stop telling myself no. I stopped second guessing myself. I stopped allowing myself to make excuses to not do cool things when I truly had no reason. It ended up allowing me to explore Wade Lake which I would’ve never done. I found hidden spots in Colorado I cannot wait to share with my friends or family. There are campgrounds I would’ve never gone to had I had the opinion of someone else to consider and while that would’ve made my trip different, the one I experienced is one I would never change. It allowed me to challenge myself in ways I hadn’t experienced before. It allowed me to trust myself and my abilities, my skills in keeping myself safe. My ability to find fun and be in charge of myself and live on my own in a way so few chose too. Travel Tuesday's Adventure RecommendationTravel Tuesday’s Adventure recommendation is the place I mentioned is one of my favorite in the world. Unfortunately, this week, its not a place just anywhere can stay. My shared home is in Bloomington, a spot where I live with my two roommates and cat. There was nothing I was more excited about coming back into the area for. I had been waiting to sit back on my porch, watching the animals and leaves fall on my street from the comfort of my porch couch.
I missed being able to walk on hardwood flooring and not have my bathroom one and a half feet from my bed. I missed having a fridge that worked all the time without having to haul out a heavy 100 ft extension cord and waking up knowing I don’t have a long drive to prepare for. While those are all some of the most exciting things about traveling, being on the road since May has been anything but an easy task. Theres difficulties I prepared for, but loneliness was not one. While I cannot say I was completely alone, I had my sweet cat with me. Even another presence, though one unspeaking, is helpful in that way, its not the same as having a travel companion. While I traveled this summer, I traveled with my boyfriend, friends, and tons of new people I had just met along the way. I always had company and it made planning and executing things much more difficult. I needed to figure out how to get this many people to this place, how to feed or sleep people, there was just always something to do. Theres other opinions to consider. When I was traveling alone, I kept wishing someone else was there for some input. With the lack of direction from others, I tend to take long road trips (8 hours round trip drive) through Colorado for nothing other than a Melanzana sweater. While I like the fact, I don’t need to consider others too much while traveling, sometimes that input can lead to a cooler camping spot, or just less stress on me figuring it out. Home means I don’t need to think about anything like that, but in a different way. I don’t have any more to worry about. My house is safe and complete with my bed and room decorated the way I want, a working fridge, my roommates, a porch to walk to hang out on tomorrow. Traveling will also be freeing for me, but there’s something freeing about home too, just in other ways. It will always offer me something that traveling to somewhere new cannot offer me, a place to always run back to, my safe place.
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About ErynnErynn is originally from Indiana and is a student at Indiana University - South Bend. While pursing her degree, she is working as a raft guide during summers and spends the rest of the year traveling in her RV alongside her adventure cat, Poe. Her goal? To promote a lifestyle around the outdoors and to disconnect from the comforts of daily life. My Blogosphere |