Hey folks,
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| Zippi in Siena |
I call it the agony of being home again. For those of you who have been traveling for a while and had to go back home you probably know what I’m referring to. For those of you who are still traveling this may not be any of your concern yet. However, I do emphasize the YET.
After traveling/ living/ working in Australia for a year it has been quite a challenge coming back home again. Both of us found it really difficult to get used to the life back home. While traveling, every day is just full of surprises, most of the times you don’t know where you are going next and more importantly you don’t know what to expect. You basically live for the moment and that’s what makes everything so exciting. Every day you meet new people, make friends from all over the world and literally every day has the potential of being the best day of your life.
That’s why it was really hard for us to get used to the routine back home. Of course we missed our family and friends and were happy to see them again, but after a couple of days both of us just wanted to go back to Australia and to keep on traveling again.
The problem we both encountered was the fact that we couldn’t enjoy ourselves anymore. No matter what we did or who we were with it was just simply not as much fun as in Australia and New Zealand. We were constantly listening to songs that reminded us of the time in OZ and NZ, recalled stories over and over again and just didn’t want to let go. The good thing was that we were three friends traveling together so being back home at least we can talk to each other as all of us understand what the other person is going through.
Monika and I had different ways of dealing with the new situation. Monika used every single occasion to leave the country again. While on the way to a job interview in Munich she just decided to hop on the next train to Paris. She also went to Siena, Salerno and Florence. I tried to distract myself by focusing on my new job. Not even a month after being back home I started the job which has left me with no time to process the fact of being back again.
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| Zippi in Paris |
While just recently meeting up with a friend in Ireland we met in New Zealand in September 2011 he raised the following question: “Guys, how have you been dealing with being home again?” Before I could even answer his question he mentioned that he felt quite depressed after coming back. Basically he was going through the same things as we did. So that’s when I started asking myself: Was it a depression I was going through? Is that possible?
I don’t have an answer but all I know is that 9 months after we left Australia we still talk about it as it was yesterday. We recall memories, look at the same pictures and listen to the same songs over and over again. And slowly but surely I’m wondering if this will ever change? What if this was the time of our lives and nothing will ever compare to this?
I remember a person from my village I talked to just before I was on the way to Australia. Twenty years ago he has been traveling himself and he still referred to it as the best time of his life. Another friend from work has been traveling in Australia five years ago and after work we constantly meet up to look at old pictures or just to talk about things that happened to us while we were over there.
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| Zippi in Salerno |
Well, after being “depressed” for months I guess
we just realized that instead of being sad and miserable it is about time to cherish what we had and look forward instead of looking back. One day we’ll probably be back in OZ or NZ and by then we just decided to enjoy the time we’ve got at home – even if it means using every single occasion to get out of the country and keep on traveling and even though it is just for a week. :)
