Living A Hundred Lives in One: Travelling to Experience Everything
Living A Hundred Lives in One: Travelling to Experience Everything
In the last year we have lived many different lives.
We have spent a month languishing in our own villa in a luxury beach resort, playing tennis and swimming in the heated pool, whenever we felt like it.
We have made home in a bustling hostel camp-ground in Byron Bay (one more akin to a shanti-town) attending a weekly talent show, learning the songs of the regular performers, sharing our space with at least 100 excitable and eclectic backpackers (and many a water-lizard and bush turkey).
We have traversed steep rainforests and mountains, climbed hills just to see the view, slept on the couches of strangers who became friends, seen night-skies that look like photographs.
We've caught deadly fish, rescued a Baby koala from the side of a road, sat beside a sleeping kangaroo, and heard the morning songs of exotic birds.
We have lived on the world largest sand island, seeing in the new year on a pitch-black deserted beach, and also lived on a farm in the middle of nowhere, enjoying our birthdays miles away from civilisation surrounded by trees and nature.
I could go on, and on, and on.
We have woken up in so many different places, had sleepless nights and restful ones, rose at 11am to explore a new city, or 6am to go and pick macadamia nuts.
This reality, the nature of our nomadic lifestyle, is pretty much the best thing about it..
Getting the chance to see beautiful places, mesmerizing sights and having the privilege to chase these elements of life, of course that's the magic that underpins travel.
But the ability to live a 100 different lifestyles and, trying out different ones for size, is the most remarkable thing that makes us feel so lucky to be doing this.
It's hard to believe that we have only been travelling for just over a year.
Back home, time passed seamlessly and quickly, and it was scary to witness.
And yet since we overhauled our way of life and came to Australia, in search of adventure and experience, time has slowed right down. Some days, time is irrelevant. Days where you feel no sense of urgency, no need to base your activities around routine or organization.
Rarely is boredom a factor. Yet when it does arise, it drives each change you make, the decision to move on, discover somewhere new, see the sunset from a different viewpoint.
Occasionally you settle into a comfortable homely routine.
Like now, we live in a house-share in Noosa, and have done for nearly 4 months (in order to top up our savings). Our things aren't packed up in our bags, they sit on shelves or in drawers.
But even this is temporary. This extended pause on our nomadic life has an end-date. And yet we embrace and enjoy each and every mundane element of it.
And the sense of nothing ever lasting too long, is a blessing, even if in some scenarios in life its a curse.
In the past I have felt the most uninspired, down and unenthusiastic, when I felt simply stuck with little to look forward to; stuck in a job I hated, in a routine that drained me of who I was.
I lost myself a bit. I think that can happen to anyone who is doing the same thing each day, if that same thing is not making them happy.
There's so much contentment to be found in a a predictable and comfortable daily life, doing a job you enjoy, maintaining a home you love and giving the best to your relationships and hobbies.
But when you aren't able to do that, and you feel as if your life-force is being drained by something, something as big as your job for instance, life can lose it's sense of freedom and joy. You can lose that.
Travel has enabled us to experiment withjobs and locations, and even when we aren't the happiest, we know it's only short-term. But real life isn't usually like that.
Real life often requires a steady and consistent way of life, and doesn't take kindly to the flighty nature of travel and job experimentation.
But travel be something you commit to, for a period in your life, to figure out what suits you, what your strengths and attributes are, to gain knowledge that can change you forever. When you are discovering the world you also get the chance to discover yourself.
And then, it can be much more fulfilling to return to normality.
Once you have lived a hundred different lives, you might find it easier to embody one in particular, the one which is the most suited to you, one that is shaped by broad and open horizons.
You could always decide you never want to leave behind the ever-changing landscape travel provides you with. And maybe you want to travel forever, and do all you can to never return home. But we've quickly learned that travel can be life-changing for all whom choose to do it, whether they do it for just a year or for 10.
Thanks for reading!
Hannah and Taran here. We hail from Southern England, where we met online and are now realizing our mutual passion for travel here at NomaderHowFar. We discuss Nomadic Living, Simplifying your Life and Long-term Travel, to empower, motivate and inspire our readers. Get to know us here!
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